December, 2023 Readings: "“Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.” Charles Schulz
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1CliffBurns
Starting off December with the latest Paul Murray novel, THE BEE STING.
Quite good thus far and looking forward to discovering how it all turns out in the end.
Still very little snow here, the weather unseasonably clement for this part of the world. We need snow, lots of it, for the spring run-off and overall healthiness of next year's crops.
On the other hand, shoveling snow last winter gave me a hernia that required surgery.
So, you see, I'm quite torn on the whole weather situation.
Quite good thus far and looking forward to discovering how it all turns out in the end.
Still very little snow here, the weather unseasonably clement for this part of the world. We need snow, lots of it, for the spring run-off and overall healthiness of next year's crops.
On the other hand, shoveling snow last winter gave me a hernia that required surgery.
So, you see, I'm quite torn on the whole weather situation.
2mejix
Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel. Has a great epic story to tell and it tells it very well. Exhaustively researched, super gossipy, it maintains the momentum for most of its 944 pages (39 hours in audiobook). The best book on that period I have read.
A Woman's Story by Annie Ernaux. Portrait of her mother written shortly after her passing. Very rigorous and well written. She writes about her mother as a type, not an individual. The book doesn't have the same emotional ooomph as Happening but still a pretty good read.
Eastbound by Maylis De Kerangal. A NYTimes top 10 book. It's a smallish project, almost a short story, but the writing is exquisite. Would love to read more DeKerangal.
The Quest for Corvo by A.J.A. Symons. I read it as a work of fiction and was not terribly impressed. Then I learned it is a true story and was left baffled. Still not convinced about Baron Corvo's literary merits but what an exasperating character, and what a weird sad life.
A Woman's Story by Annie Ernaux. Portrait of her mother written shortly after her passing. Very rigorous and well written. She writes about her mother as a type, not an individual. The book doesn't have the same emotional ooomph as Happening but still a pretty good read.
Eastbound by Maylis De Kerangal. A NYTimes top 10 book. It's a smallish project, almost a short story, but the writing is exquisite. Would love to read more DeKerangal.
The Quest for Corvo by A.J.A. Symons. I read it as a work of fiction and was not terribly impressed. Then I learned it is a true story and was left baffled. Still not convinced about Baron Corvo's literary merits but what an exasperating character, and what a weird sad life.
3CliffBurns
Finished THE BEE STING, which was wonderful until the last thirty or forty pages--the ending is something of a letdown.
Still, a four-star book that is sure to make my year end "Best of..." roster.
Still, a four-star book that is sure to make my year end "Best of..." roster.
4CliffBurns
DARKNESS STICKS TO EVERYTHING, a selection of poems and prose poems by Minnesota writer Tom Hennen.
He's often compared to my hero Ted Kooser and, as I wrote in my book journal, there are definite similarities "...including their shared ability to draw spirit, meaning and purpose from nature and inanimate objects".
Look for his poem "What Plants Say", it's amazing.
Recommended.
He's often compared to my hero Ted Kooser and, as I wrote in my book journal, there are definite similarities "...including their shared ability to draw spirit, meaning and purpose from nature and inanimate objects".
Look for his poem "What Plants Say", it's amazing.
Recommended.
5iansales
Books read:
From Potter’s Field, Patricia Cornwell - the sixth book in the Scarpetta series, and a reread as I originally read this back in the 1990s. The serial killer from the previous two novels, Temple Gault, strikes again, and the usual suspects run around New York, and up and down the east coast, trying to learn more about him, before finally setting a trap to catch him. Like most fictional serial killers, Gault is made out to be some kind of genius, but all he really does is play silly games with those hunting him. There's nothing actually genius in what he does. I always liked the Scarpetta books because Cornwell managed to write about computers convincingly--of course, it's 1990s computing, but she gets the terminology right... although it does get all a bit magical when it comes to the FBI's artificial intelligence, CAIN. Not as good as some of the novels before it.
Dictator, Robert Harris - the final book in Harris's trilogy about Cicero. I recently started watching a new documentary about Caesar, and not once does it mention Cicero. Yet he was there, bouncing between Pompey, Crassus and Caesar, the three members of the Triumvirate, alternately working for Caesar and against him, beholden to him one moment and then sabotaging his plans. In this final book, Cicero has been exiled and his houses destroyed--he was consul when the Cataline Conspiracy occurred, and instrumental in stopping it, and afterwards the Senate voted to execute the conspirators without trial, and that act has been laid at Cicero's feet and used to strip him of his power and wealth. Meanwhile, Caesar is busy extending the Roman Empire in Gaul and, if his exploits described in the book are accurate, he was pretty much a war criminal, and operating illegally without Senate approval. Cicero's exile is overturned, and he returns to Rome, only now Crassus and Pompey have fallen out, and are threatening to fix the elections for consul. Crassus heads off to the Parthian Empire with an army, to repeat Pompey's successes, but is defeated and killed. And then Caesar invades Italy with his legions... The rest, I think, everyone knows: the Ides of March and all that. Cicero backs Octavian, but is then betrayed by him. They were a nasty lot, the Romans. I like Harris's novels, and they've all been very different, covering a wide range of topics. A few are potboilers, and probably best avoided, but the rest are good, especially the historical ones.
Beyond the Reach of Earth, Ken MacLeod - the second novel of MacLeod's Lightspeed trilogy, set in a near-ish future dominated by three blocs, the Anglosphere Alliance, the Russian and Chinese Co-ord, and the EU, and in which FTL was discovered in 2018 but kept secret by the Alliance and Co-ord. Except it wasn't them controlling it, it seems, but a secret organisation called Black Horizon, whose agenda is still not entirely clear by the end of this novel. Anyway, in book 1, Beyond the Hallowed Sky, an Alliance scientist independently discovered FTL, and defected to the Union with it, and a small group of Scots then built a FTL submarine. There's an Earth-like exoplanet that's being explored by Alliance and Co-ord, and strange rock outcrops which appear to be some form of alien life--and those rocks are present on Venus and Earth... And it seems the rocks, the Fermi, have terraformed a number of planets, including Earth, and then they suddenly disappear... And if all this wasn't enough, it seems the FTL drive occasionally sends ships back and forth through time, and to alternate universes... For something that started out as a near-future thriller, MacLeod has now thrown in everything except the kitchen sink. It works, because he knows what he's doing. Although two-thirds of the way through the trilogy and I've no idea where it's going. Recommended.
After Atlas, Emma Newman - apparently, Newman's Planetfall did well enough for the publishers to ask her to write a sequel, which then became a series of four books. This is the second, set on Earth, and with a protagonist whose mother was one of those who left on the starship described in the first novel. Carlos Moreno is a detective, working for the UK's Ministry of Justice. He's also a slave. He grew up in the Circle, a US anti-tech religious cult, but escaped as a teenager. When the head of the Circle visits the UK and is found murdered, Moreno is given the case. What starts out as a fairly intriguing near-future police procedural, however, soon turns into something completely different. Unfortunately, the whole world is built on slavery and I have to wonder why people continue to write near-futures featuring chattel slavery. There's no justification for it. The world-building in After Atlas is the worst kind of corporatist capitalism, with vast inequality, oligarchs and plutocrats, endemic poverty, as well as slavery. It spoiled the book for me. Just look at the future MacLeod created for his trilogy--it's not perfect, but it's not this economic and social fascism that sf is all too fond of. Spoiled the book for me. I'm no longer sure if I'll bother reading the sequels.
Moving Pictures, Terry Pratchett - the tenth Discworld novel, and as should be obvious from the title, this time Pratchett is taking potshots at Hollywood, here called Holy Wood. People from different walks of life in Ankh-Morpork are drawn to Holy Wood to make "clicks", and the rapid success of the artform and industry surprises everyone, including those involved in it. It seems there's a gateway to another dimension nearby, and creatures from that dimension are using cinema to try and invade Discworld. There's a lot of obvious jokes here, but also some very clever ones. Unfortunately, the topic seems a bit tired--Hollywood has been poking fun at itself for as long as it's existed, and I'm not sure Pratchett brings anything new to it. A good read, and entertaining, but not one of the series' best.
From Potter’s Field, Patricia Cornwell - the sixth book in the Scarpetta series, and a reread as I originally read this back in the 1990s. The serial killer from the previous two novels, Temple Gault, strikes again, and the usual suspects run around New York, and up and down the east coast, trying to learn more about him, before finally setting a trap to catch him. Like most fictional serial killers, Gault is made out to be some kind of genius, but all he really does is play silly games with those hunting him. There's nothing actually genius in what he does. I always liked the Scarpetta books because Cornwell managed to write about computers convincingly--of course, it's 1990s computing, but she gets the terminology right... although it does get all a bit magical when it comes to the FBI's artificial intelligence, CAIN. Not as good as some of the novels before it.
Dictator, Robert Harris - the final book in Harris's trilogy about Cicero. I recently started watching a new documentary about Caesar, and not once does it mention Cicero. Yet he was there, bouncing between Pompey, Crassus and Caesar, the three members of the Triumvirate, alternately working for Caesar and against him, beholden to him one moment and then sabotaging his plans. In this final book, Cicero has been exiled and his houses destroyed--he was consul when the Cataline Conspiracy occurred, and instrumental in stopping it, and afterwards the Senate voted to execute the conspirators without trial, and that act has been laid at Cicero's feet and used to strip him of his power and wealth. Meanwhile, Caesar is busy extending the Roman Empire in Gaul and, if his exploits described in the book are accurate, he was pretty much a war criminal, and operating illegally without Senate approval. Cicero's exile is overturned, and he returns to Rome, only now Crassus and Pompey have fallen out, and are threatening to fix the elections for consul. Crassus heads off to the Parthian Empire with an army, to repeat Pompey's successes, but is defeated and killed. And then Caesar invades Italy with his legions... The rest, I think, everyone knows: the Ides of March and all that. Cicero backs Octavian, but is then betrayed by him. They were a nasty lot, the Romans. I like Harris's novels, and they've all been very different, covering a wide range of topics. A few are potboilers, and probably best avoided, but the rest are good, especially the historical ones.
Beyond the Reach of Earth, Ken MacLeod - the second novel of MacLeod's Lightspeed trilogy, set in a near-ish future dominated by three blocs, the Anglosphere Alliance, the Russian and Chinese Co-ord, and the EU, and in which FTL was discovered in 2018 but kept secret by the Alliance and Co-ord. Except it wasn't them controlling it, it seems, but a secret organisation called Black Horizon, whose agenda is still not entirely clear by the end of this novel. Anyway, in book 1, Beyond the Hallowed Sky, an Alliance scientist independently discovered FTL, and defected to the Union with it, and a small group of Scots then built a FTL submarine. There's an Earth-like exoplanet that's being explored by Alliance and Co-ord, and strange rock outcrops which appear to be some form of alien life--and those rocks are present on Venus and Earth... And it seems the rocks, the Fermi, have terraformed a number of planets, including Earth, and then they suddenly disappear... And if all this wasn't enough, it seems the FTL drive occasionally sends ships back and forth through time, and to alternate universes... For something that started out as a near-future thriller, MacLeod has now thrown in everything except the kitchen sink. It works, because he knows what he's doing. Although two-thirds of the way through the trilogy and I've no idea where it's going. Recommended.
After Atlas, Emma Newman - apparently, Newman's Planetfall did well enough for the publishers to ask her to write a sequel, which then became a series of four books. This is the second, set on Earth, and with a protagonist whose mother was one of those who left on the starship described in the first novel. Carlos Moreno is a detective, working for the UK's Ministry of Justice. He's also a slave. He grew up in the Circle, a US anti-tech religious cult, but escaped as a teenager. When the head of the Circle visits the UK and is found murdered, Moreno is given the case. What starts out as a fairly intriguing near-future police procedural, however, soon turns into something completely different. Unfortunately, the whole world is built on slavery and I have to wonder why people continue to write near-futures featuring chattel slavery. There's no justification for it. The world-building in After Atlas is the worst kind of corporatist capitalism, with vast inequality, oligarchs and plutocrats, endemic poverty, as well as slavery. It spoiled the book for me. Just look at the future MacLeod created for his trilogy--it's not perfect, but it's not this economic and social fascism that sf is all too fond of. Spoiled the book for me. I'm no longer sure if I'll bother reading the sequels.
Moving Pictures, Terry Pratchett - the tenth Discworld novel, and as should be obvious from the title, this time Pratchett is taking potshots at Hollywood, here called Holy Wood. People from different walks of life in Ankh-Morpork are drawn to Holy Wood to make "clicks", and the rapid success of the artform and industry surprises everyone, including those involved in it. It seems there's a gateway to another dimension nearby, and creatures from that dimension are using cinema to try and invade Discworld. There's a lot of obvious jokes here, but also some very clever ones. Unfortunately, the topic seems a bit tired--Hollywood has been poking fun at itself for as long as it's existed, and I'm not sure Pratchett brings anything new to it. A good read, and entertaining, but not one of the series' best.
6CliffBurns
MONEY: A Suicide Note by Martin Amis.
First read this 25-30 years ago but after the author's death resolved to reread it.
Still packs a wallop--a decidedly unsavory protagonist (as unreliable a narrator as they come), lots of politically incorrect shenanigans and some truly laugh out loud moments. Bound to offend many, which is one of the reasons I like it.
Recommended.
First read this 25-30 years ago but after the author's death resolved to reread it.
Still packs a wallop--a decidedly unsavory protagonist (as unreliable a narrator as they come), lots of politically incorrect shenanigans and some truly laugh out loud moments. Bound to offend many, which is one of the reasons I like it.
Recommended.
7CliffBurns
I recently turned sixty so a friend of mine presented me with copies of NOW I AM SIX by A.A. Milne, and two sendups of same, NOW WE ARE SIXTY and NOW WE ARE SIXTY AND A BIT by Christopher Matthew.
The Milne book was fun, particularly the two short pieces "Come Out With Me" and "Binker".
The Matthew satires were bawdier and not as quaint.
A fun afternoon of reading.
The Milne book was fun, particularly the two short pieces "Come Out With Me" and "Binker".
The Matthew satires were bawdier and not as quaint.
A fun afternoon of reading.
8KatrinkaV
>7 CliffBurns: Happy belated 60th!
9CliffBurns
>8 KatrinkaV: I'm getting old. As undeniable as my greying hair and waning interest in contemporary arts and culture.
10justifiedsinner
>9 CliffBurns: Old? Ha! Wait another decade.
11CliffBurns
> That...doesn't exactly sound encouraging.
Ten years ago my father-in-law (now deceased) advised me: "Growing old isn't for wimps".
He wasn't just whistling Dixie...
Ten years ago my father-in-law (now deceased) advised me: "Growing old isn't for wimps".
He wasn't just whistling Dixie...
12justifiedsinner
>11 CliffBurns: He wasn't. Just keep moving and keep learning.
13CliffBurns
>12 justifiedsinner: Sound advice.
Just wrapped up ONCE UPON A TOME, Oliver Darkshire's account of his tenure at a London antiquarian bookshop.
Eccentric staff, crazy customers, all sorts of strange encounters...book lovers will appreciate this one.
Just wrapped up ONCE UPON A TOME, Oliver Darkshire's account of his tenure at a London antiquarian bookshop.
Eccentric staff, crazy customers, all sorts of strange encounters...book lovers will appreciate this one.
14CliffBurns
With MUSICAL TABLES, Billy Collins displays his mastery of short-short poems, snippets, little zen koans that ring with the authority and wisdom of a temple bell.
Even confirmed poetry haters would have a hard time dissing this one.
Even confirmed poetry haters would have a hard time dissing this one.
15CliffBurns
Finished FLYING AT NIGHT, by one of my favorite American poets, Ted Kooser.
This is a selection of his poetry from 1965-85 and contains some of his most well-known verse, including "Fort Robinson".
The man was a genius.
This is a selection of his poetry from 1965-85 and contains some of his most well-known verse, including "Fort Robinson".
The man was a genius.
16mejix
Once again, ready to send shock waves throughout the publishing industry. Here are the best books I read in 2023:
Five stars:
Happening by Annie Ernaux
Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel
Four stars:
Letters to Camondo by Edmund DeWaal
Sure, I'll Join Your Cult by Maria Bamford
Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal
The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography by A. J. A. Symons
A Woman's Story by Annie Ernaux
The Captive and The Fugitive by Marcel Proust
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell- Best title ever.
Butcher's Crossing by John Williams
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
Chocky by John Wyndham
Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A. by Eve Babitz
When Einstein Walked with Gödel by Jim Holt
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
My Struggle: Book 5 by Karl Ove Knausgård
The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt
The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector
Honorable mentions:
Chéri and The End of Chéri by Colette
Narrow Road to the Interior and Hojoki by Matsuo Bashō and Kamo no Chomei respectively - Best audiobook production
Songs of Kabir as translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan
Movies of the year:
Floating Weeds by Yasujirō Ozu
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan, The Ratcatcher and Poison by Wes Anderson
3 Faces by Jafar Panahi
Five stars:
Happening by Annie Ernaux
Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel
Four stars:
Letters to Camondo by Edmund DeWaal
Sure, I'll Join Your Cult by Maria Bamford
Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal
The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography by A. J. A. Symons
A Woman's Story by Annie Ernaux
The Captive and The Fugitive by Marcel Proust
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell- Best title ever.
Butcher's Crossing by John Williams
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
Chocky by John Wyndham
Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A. by Eve Babitz
When Einstein Walked with Gödel by Jim Holt
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
My Struggle: Book 5 by Karl Ove Knausgård
The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt
The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector
Honorable mentions:
Chéri and The End of Chéri by Colette
Narrow Road to the Interior and Hojoki by Matsuo Bashō and Kamo no Chomei respectively - Best audiobook production
Songs of Kabir as translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan
Movies of the year:
Floating Weeds by Yasujirō Ozu
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan, The Ratcatcher and Poison by Wes Anderson
3 Faces by Jafar Panahi
