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Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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Not finished yet, but I will. I'm about a third of the way through and loving it. Based on what ladyvibrant said in the "binge reading" thread, I'm reading a memoir that I'd never heard of before her post: Black White and Jewish by Rebecca Walker. Her writing is lovely.
Well another one gets added to my TBR list~ this one really looks enticing but it will have to wait until I think I have the capacity to concentrate and focus. thank you for recommending.
I found it in my library in unusual place; indexed as a biography of "Kurban Said", another pseudonym and the author of the apparently important Ali and Nino. I wound up purchasing the book so I could "actively read" it, i.e. make notes and mark it up.
In between my other reading, I read To Jerusalem and Back by Saul Bellow. I thought the book was excellent. Saul Bellow usually writes fiction, so it was a different genre than he usually writes. It was more a series of approximately 100 essays, organized into a book. Good book concerned broadly Middle Eastern politics and some religious issues, focusing on the mid-1970's. That was a period of time that Israel was in in the shadow of the 1973 war between Israel and the Arabs. The book focused around discussions with 1970's-era academicians and politicians. Those people and the author made some predictions that did not pan out. For example, Egypt negotiated real peace with Israel, whereas the other surrounding powers, as predicted by the book, did no
The book is a good read for people with a deep interest in history, and the way things were during an earlier period. It is the kind of book that for other readers would seem dated.
I'm reading The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager. Three young girls go missing while at a summer camp. Fifteen years later the camp director hosts a reunion summer. It might be YA which isn't my usual jam, but I'm flipping those pages!
Ostensibly, the book is the story of a deliberately obscure author, Lev Nussenbaum, wrote and lived under assumed assumed names Mohamed Essad Bey and Kurban Said. The author who was the subject was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, and as the antebellum World War I falls apart, fled to Constantinople, then Berlin, and after a short period in New York City, then to Vienna and after the Anschluss to Positano, Italy, where he dies as age 35. In reality, the book is the story both of a turbulent era, and a region of the world that fuses East and West. Even though I consider myself a serious history buff, the book was mostly information with which I was not familiar. The book was interesting enough that I went to the trouble of obtaining an old library copy of Stalin: The Career Of A Fanatic by Essad Bey. I also bought his "autobiography," Blood and Oil in the Orient: My childhood in Baku and my hair-raising escape through the Caucasus on Amazon. I put quotes around "autobiography" since he apparently does not reveal that is in in fact the Jewish Lev Nussenbaum.
I am about 20% of the way through a library copy (looks like is was obtained not long after its initial 1932 publication) of Stalin: The Career Of A Fanatic by Essad Bey. A real page turner written while Stalin turned out to be in the early stages of his depredations.
This was a 4 star read for me. I loved the premise of the book. From the jacket...High Plains Tango is the hauntingly lyrical story of a small town in the middle of nowhere, a town that forever changed--and was forever changed by--one man.
Written by the author of "The Bridges of Madison County".
"It Slowly occurred to Carlisle McMillan that he had come to Salamander with a single purpose: to avoid the great economic colossus called progress. He wanted it to pass without noticing him, leaving him mostly whole and mostly sane in Yerkes County. So Carlisle thought he'd figured it out. Lay low, do good work and not too much of it, clean up your vocabulary, find a solid woman. Simplify, keep things uncomplicated. It seemed to be working."
"Gally, I admit I've got a bias about these things, but there's something real artificial about what's happening, not just in terms of this highway piece of crap, but all over the place. Highways, condos, bad construction that passes for new houses, fast-food-bad-food, shopping malls full of junk that nobody really needs, all that stuff. Capitalism has turned into trinketism, and we're ruining this country."
There were so many of those "coincidences" in this book that I related to in my real life...which always gives the book more of a "personal feel" and it had a strong, solid ending (nothing open ended) which I always find satisfying
I will agree that the writing is superb, and lyrical.
But I didn't understand it. There were so many "why's?" in the book, I can't understand anyone's motivation.
And with the exception of the two little girls, and that minor character with the missing leg, I didn't like any of the characters.
It was one of the most joyless, hopeless books I've ever read.
edited to add: I didn't mean to sound so harsh. I'm glad you liked it. ;D
That's quite all right...that's why I always say "FOR ME" when I rate the books. What I think, isn't necessarily what everybody else is going to think. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I respect that. This was a book where you had to "read between the lines" a lot and use some imagination at times, but as you said, the superb writing was really what pulled me in, regardless. Thanks for your comments
I'm reading The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager. Three young girls go missing while at a summer camp. Fifteen years later the camp director hosts a reunion summer. It might be YA which isn't my usual jam, but I'm flipping those pages!
Riley Sager writes YA? Did not know that. I am reading Lock Every Door and it's very good. Almost done. Hope the finish isn't disappointing.
I can't put the The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason down. I'm at 38% and I'm giving it five stars. Charles Darwin’s publication of On the Origin of Species sets off a string of murders, arson, kidnapping, and the pursuit of a madman. Well written and highly entertaining.
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I'm about a third of the way through and loving it. Based on what ladyvibrant said in the "binge reading" thread, I'm reading a memoir that I'd never heard of before her post: 
