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Post by stephen on Jan 25, 2022 21:48:49 GMT
next up, my first McCarthy Fuck. Yes. I don't know if I would say The Road works best as an entryway to McCarthy, even though it did for so many people due to the Pulitzer and the Oprah element. I see it as the end result (at least until The Passenger comes out) of his evolutionary style. But it's such a stark and effective book that it is practically a long poem. I would say that if he hooks you here and you explore more of his stuff, loop back around again at the end and read/listen to it again. It packs even more of a wallop afterward.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Jan 26, 2022 0:34:13 GMT
stephen yeah I'm already a couple hours in and really digging it. McCarthy's descriptions of the end of the world remind me of the descriptions of the Depression in the essay portions of Grapes of Wrath. There's such a rhythm to McCarthy's prose. It's stark but also beautiful. "Ever is a long time. But the boy knew what he knew. That ever is no time at all."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2022 20:06:05 GMT
Picked this up today!
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Post by DeepArcher on Jan 28, 2022 4:22:57 GMT
Ishiguro working his same old alchemy and delivering another classic. Lovely, magical, quietly heartbreaking. One of the most originally conceived and memorable narrators/protagonists in anything I've read in quite some time.
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Post by Martin Stett on Jan 28, 2022 5:18:19 GMT
Ishiguro working his same old alchemy and delivering another classic. Lovely, magical, quietly heartbreaking. One of the most originally conceived and memorable narrators/protagonists in anything I've read in quite some time.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Feb 1, 2022 15:34:15 GMT
The Road was astounding. Haven't fully processed yet, but man what an ending. next up, first nonfiction of the year. Julian Sancton's Madhouse at the End of the Earth (published mid-2021) about the early failed Antarctic expedition of the RV Belgica.
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Post by Mattsby on Feb 5, 2022 1:26:00 GMT
Just finished I'll Be In My Trailer: The Creative Wars Between Directors & Actors (2006) by John Badham - an underrated director who did Saturday Night Fever and worked with many great actors - in his first few movies: James Earl Jones, Laurence Olivier, Frank Langella, John Cassavetes, etc. Written in a funny, conversational way with lots of on-set examples and spliced interviews from dozens of subjects/Badham's friends - Soderbergh, Frankenheimer, Sydney Pollack, Mel Gibson, etc and James Woods who gave my fav answers - "With all due modesty, I have the skills to take their kneecaps off after about four words." It's actually a much more useful book for filmmakers than the popularly named books - which are all good, but a bit dated or too academic or leave you, like sometimes with the Director On Directors wishing they'd be more honest about their failures and process.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 6, 2022 20:10:27 GMT
A Madman's Diary - Lu Xun - I had always heard about this but never read it - it's a short, diary form story (from 1918) - that describes cannibalism existing within the Chinese cultural tradition (trust me, it makes sense when you read it - in the diarist's disturbed "mind"). Essentially a satire / indictment of the Chinese culture and population - it can be read as advocating a "new" movement. Kind of fascinating.......easy to read and re-read and then question what each line appears to mean and "really" does......a sort of revolutionary manifesto - simple on 1 level, complex on another.....
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Feb 15, 2022 16:19:39 GMT
somehow I've lived 28 years without reading these. I hope they're as good as people say
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Post by Mattsby on Feb 16, 2022 21:49:18 GMT
Read two great stories that I bought recently, packaged on their own, they're small but mighty....
The Outing by Dylan Thomas, 18pg with illustrations. "Trust old Bob, he'll let you down!" It's about an unexpected pub crawl, and I may make it an annual read like I do with DT's A Child's Christmas in Wales. Overflowing with clever detail and hilarious characters, it reminded me of a Renoir comedy.
Used books have their perks.....there's an inscription in my copy, a wife writing a charming letter to her husband stationed in Saigon, 1972.
Letters from Mom by Julio Cortázar, 44pg. Published 1959 but didn't make the translated compilation, Blow-up And Other Stories (1968)..... It became available in English for the first time a few weeks ago. It's an interesting piece on corrupted romance, on living life parenthetically, and how we let in the ghosts of the past.
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Drish
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Post by Drish on Feb 18, 2022 22:09:47 GMT
Just started The Road and I've a feeling I'll be a mess after finishing it.
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Post by cheesecake on Feb 23, 2022 21:56:06 GMT
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Feb 25, 2022 18:18:14 GMT
the Jeannette Walls memoir
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Post by stephen on Feb 25, 2022 19:26:19 GMT
the Jeannette Walls memoir Made into the worst film of 2017.
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Post by jimmalone on Mar 1, 2022 12:04:43 GMT
Herman Wouk: The Winds of War Great book, especially in times as those in Europe. I accidentally read the chapters about Germanys invasion in Poland the same day as the russian troops of those small lunatic attacked the Ukraine.
Fans of Ken Follett's Millennium Trilogy should try this similiar, but (at least so far) much better novel, at least much better than the 2nd and 3rd book.
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Post by wilcinema on Mar 1, 2022 13:57:36 GMT
I've finished Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk, and I don't think I'll read anything else by him. After the stroke of genius that was Fight Club, I've read Choke, Lullaby and Survivor, which is basically him telling the same story over and over and in the exact same style.
I've started Killers of The Flower Moon. I want to be prepared for Marty's movie.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Mar 1, 2022 19:40:26 GMT
the Jeannette Walls memoir Made into the worst film of 2017. hmmm after finishing it I can imagine where you're coming from. I liked the book fine but it is kind of a free-wheeling series of memories laid out almost as a fable. Walls doesn't impart quite enough self-awareness to distinguish between childhood whimsy and harrowing reality, just kind of lays out the facts and the shift between admiring her parents and wanting to escape them is practically invisible. The only thing that seems to be on its mind is how her parents were deeply flawed but still loved her. I could see how that would make for not a good movie. Is it like Hillbilly Elegy?
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Post by stephen on Mar 1, 2022 19:51:59 GMT
Made into the worst film of 2017. hmmm after finishing it I can imagine where you're coming from. I liked the book fine but it is kind of a free-wheeling series of memories laid out almost as a fable. Walls doesn't impart quite enough self-awareness to distinguish between childhood whimsy and harrowing reality, just kind of lays out the facts and the shift between admiring her parents and wanting to escape them is practically invisible. The only thing that seems to be on its mind is how her parents were deeply flawed but still loved her. I could see how that would make for not a good movie. Is it like Hillbilly Elegy? I mean, they're kinda cut from the same cloth, but Hillbilly Elegy was a milquetoast whitewashing of an asshole's story, whereas The Glass Castle was just a story populated with overwrought and unlikable people.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Mar 4, 2022 18:17:54 GMT
supposedly the movie comes out in July so there's no better time to check this out. Heard nothing but good things and it must've been really hot back in 2018 because my library bought 20 of 'em. I told you I'd get to it, @tyler !
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Post by Martin Stett on Mar 4, 2022 22:20:00 GMT
WatchmenIt's pretty fitting right now
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Post by Mattsby on Mar 8, 2022 2:20:08 GMT
Letters from a Lost Uncle (1948) by Mervyn Peake. 125pg. Interesting handmade feel, with much cartoon humor, a Quixote in the cold... an old man with a swordfish bill for a leg and a sort of penguin-turtle as his sidekick (his Panza) search for a mythical white lion to tickle. Fun.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Mar 9, 2022 5:15:31 GMT
feel like I'm just spamming this thread at this point haha, but everything's going so quickly! Where the Crawdads Sing was really lovely. Was getting antsy around the midpoint because I thought I knew where it was heading but it kept upending my expectations and drives toward a nail-biting climax. Love Kya as a character as this study of defiant self-determination tempered by vulnerability and loneliness. Her loneliness at constant odds with her inability to accept that she could ever need anything from anyone. It's such a compelling characterization of someone who needs so much but can't trust anyone. Can't wait to see what Daisy Edgar-Jones brings to the role. Physically she's perfect for Kya, and if she can nail the accent she might be an early-season awards contender. next up is going to be my first Ishiguro. I always want to love the movie and never can quite get there, so maybe I can love the book.
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Drish
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Post by Drish on Mar 15, 2022 19:01:17 GMT
Finished Under the Banner of Heaven
This is such an emotionally taxing book. Deep dives into religious fanaticism and the horror that emerges from the sheer blindness of it. A very extensive book with so many subplots belonging to different timeframes and at times might get too exhausting to comprehend but the end result is very rewarding. Highly recommended!
Andrew Garfield has an upcoming show based on this and I'm finding it very hard to imagine how they can make a show out of this. Fingers crossed. It's such a difficult book to adapt!
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Post by wilcinema on Mar 27, 2022 18:52:05 GMT
Killers of The Flower Moon
A bit too procedural for my taste, but it was kind of terrifying getting into this story deeper and deeper. Also, I can't wait to see De Niro as William Hale.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Apr 4, 2022 16:29:37 GMT
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