I'm going to italy in a month or so and thought it might be fun to read an italy book on the trip
I think the only italian author I've read maybe is umberto eco (_name of the rose_)
so um, any recommendations welcome for books by italian authors or set in italy
right now my two possibles are _the talented mr ripley_ by patricia highsmith or _the land where lemons grow_ by helena attlee
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino is very good. Sort of surrealist vignettes describing imaginary cities that are also all sort of aspects of the same city (thpoilerth)
I haven't read them yet, but a lot of people seem to enjoy Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels series.
In the maybe slightly less highbrow category I read a satirical sci-fi novel a very long time ago by an Italian writer called Stefano Benni. Think the book was called Terra! I literally remember nothing of it, other than that I liked it.
I'm not sure it's true that King's endings can always be considered successful enough to 'pay back the loan of your attention', but I love the phrase and it's absolutely true about Abrams, who habitually grabs your attention and builds it up and then says oh the journey was the important thing and walks away.
I must have gotten rid of it during one of my many moves, before reading it : (
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Buy it again. Invisible Cities is one of those books I've bought a half dozen copies of because I compulsively loan it to people, and eventually don't get it back. I think there's some used book store somewhere that's nothing but old copies of Invisible Cities.
Finished the Bobiverse trilogy. I liked it overall. The character still grates me a bit but the exploration of being a self replicating piece of software based on a human was good. I especially liked the Bobs going full Culture at the end.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
I fell off about 1/2 way through the third Bob book. I need to finish it.
Paper Girls volume 4 and the various short stories in Interzone 254. I have like four years of Interzone backlog to read stacked up by the bedside. Reliably one or two excellent short stories every issue.
Just finished Kafka's The Trial. I really liked it; felt like Russian lit, sort of. I'm left with the feeling that I need to read a lecture or basic introduction to it in order to hear what people have to say about what's going on in it, and about the nuances involved in reading an unfinished work, which I don't think I've done before.
I remain really puzzled that I haven't read it before this point, because it's really my jam; I wonder why no one ever recommended it to me? Maybe they assumed I'd read it already for class or something, but it was never taught to me and I guess I just sort of lacked the cultural literacy to ever have read anything by Kafka, although of course I've been vaguely aware of where he's situated in literature.
Anyway, interesting and short read, recommended if you enjoy psychological novels and some Gogol-ish surrealism.
God, there's this scene where he goes into a room in his office and the two guards that arrested him are being flogged in there, and there's a whole interaction; and then the next day he comes back and they are still there, the same scene--and it's just presented in the same way that this sort of thing is in Gogol and I've always wanted to understand a bit more what to do with phantasmagoria in novels, or I guess to dive deeper into what it's doing in the novel, especially when it's just presented as happening, and not later suggested/declared to be a dream/hallucination/etc
Just finished Kafka's The Trial. I really liked it; felt like Russian lit, sort of. I'm left with the feeling that I need to read a lecture or basic introduction to it in order to hear what people have to say about what's going on in it, and about the nuances involved in reading an unfinished work, which I don't think I've done before.
I remain really puzzled that I haven't read it before this point, because it's really my jam; I wonder why no one ever recommended it to me? Maybe they assumed I'd read it already for class or something, but it was never taught to me and I guess I just sort of lacked the cultural literacy to ever have read anything by Kafka, although of course I've been vaguely aware of where he's situated in literature.
Anyway, interesting and short read, recommended if you enjoy psychological novels and some Gogol-ish surrealism.
God, there's this scene where he goes into a room in his office and the two guards that arrested him are being flogged in there, and there's a whole interaction; and then the next day he comes back and they are still there, the same scene--and it's just presented in the same way that this sort of thing is in Gogol and I've always wanted to understand a bit more what to do with phantasmagoria in novels, or I guess to dive deeper into what it's doing in the novel, especially when it's just presented as happening, and not later suggested/declared to be a dream/hallucination/etc
Some of his short stories are pretty on point too.
Happy memories of sitting in a cafe in Prague drinking a beer and reading a Kafka collection and then they brought me an entire goddamb ham hock all roasted up and I had to stop reading for a bit.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Man, Le Guinn isn't pulling any punches about sexism in The Dispossessed, is she?
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Commuting means I’ve started going on a tear. I read three books in the last two weeks which is a nice change from that same number in the last year. I got a library card!
I picked up Republic of Thieves since I’ve been meaning to catch up on that series but after that think I’m gonna browse the library’s nonfiction.
I’m now reading Record of a Spaceborn Few, which is enjoyable (although I mostly, so far anyway, question the decision to include prologue chapters).
Becky Chambers must be Jewish, right? Her feelings about the diaspora culture of the Exodus fleet are insanely Jewish.
Steam, LoL: credeiki
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jakobaggerLO THY DREAD EMPIRE CHAOS IS RESTOREDRegistered Userregular
I mean, there are other diasporas, who might have ended up with some similar cultural ideas and feelings from their similar experiences.
That said, I have not read the book yet and am myself from one of the probably least diasporaed cultures there is (Denmark's been an independent kingdom for a long, continuous time).
Finished Douglas Adam's Dirk Gently. It's origin as a script for a Doctor Who episode is very obvious. It has some clever ideas, but overall I found it a bit too unfocused.
Read Sugar and Swing some time ago, two OGNs dealing with romance and unconventional relationships (part of the Sunstone/Blood Stain thing Top Cow is doing). For reviews, see the GV board. Short version: I liked Swing, but not Sugar.
Currently reading In The Court of the Yellow King, an anthology with short stories dealing with Robin Chambers the King in Yellow. Quality of the individual stories is a bit up and down so far, but I think I only like horror fiction in short stories. Longer stories tend to either undermine or over explain their main concept (also having lost all interest in anything to do with zombies and vampires, I don't see a lot of things that interest me on the horror shelves at my local book-stores.) The King in Yellow also has not been done quite as much as its cousin, the Lovecraft mythos, so there still is some room for different interpretations there.
I’m now reading Record of a Spaceborn Few, which is enjoyable (although I mostly, so far anyway, question the decision to include prologue chapters).
Becky Chambers must be Jewish, right? Her feelings about the diaspora culture of the Exodus fleet are insanely Jewish.
I...did not get that vibe, but am wondering what drew you to that conclusion, because sometimes I miss Really Obvious Things.
Nor did I but the list of media I've consumed that would give a strong Jewish diaspora vibe, where I'd have noticed it is something along the lines of:
[li] The Yiddish Policemen's Union [/li]
so it may not be a terribly well tuned sense for me.
I’m now reading Record of a Spaceborn Few, which is enjoyable (although I mostly, so far anyway, question the decision to include prologue chapters).
Becky Chambers must be Jewish, right? Her feelings about the diaspora culture of the Exodus fleet are insanely Jewish.
I...did not get that vibe, but am wondering what drew you to that conclusion, because sometimes I miss Really Obvious Things.
Hmm I can't put my finger on it specifically, but the way human people in the book relate to their ancestry and race and nationality
The way Sawyer feels about going to the Fleet is very similar to the tangle of feelings that one feels as a diaspora jew going to israel sort of (although it's not a 1:1 thing, and in a way there's also the sense of going to the Old Country rather than to Israel, although the communal/utopian idealism nature evokes the kibbutz feeling of the latter (but the sense of run-down poverty evokes the former)--it's a bit of both)
The sense of written preserved tradition and ritual with the Archives is very strong, again not uniquely jewish or anything, just has a bit of that feeling about it
The part where Tamsin is talking about how, ok, the Harmaginians who were around during GC saying we weren't worth admitting to the galactic community aren't still around, but their descendants are and the structures they built are is also somehow quite resonant
I think if I went through and did a close reading and were better at a certain type of literary scholarship I would be able to pull together a long essay about this; sorry I am being annoyingly unspecific. Just something about how when Sawyer is at the funeral at the beginning and they're like, are you Exodan? And he's like, 'yeah well no well I mean a ways back right my great grandparents'--that sort of diaspora identity. I'm not saying she put secretly jewish characters or symbolism in it or anything, just that it has that feel.
Anyway, this was a good book and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I don't think there needed to be a prologue taking place 4 years prior to the main events--gave things a slow start, and there was pretty much 0 to be gained from seeing Kip as a 9 year old, for example--but I did like the epilogues taking place a few years after.
Republic of Thieves drags on forever compared to the previous books. 150 pages and and I’m almost to the main plot.
Yeahhh
I think the past plotline in the book is really fun but the present plotline in it is like...I mean not bad but also you kinda don't super care about it and you're also kinda tired a bit of the Locke and Jean friendship being so easily exploited by various adversaries?
I put a hold on Fear by Bob Woodward at the library and discovered I was 51st in line. So, uh, while I wait on that, I thought I'd check out The Final Days by Woodward and Bernstein (about the end of the Nixon administration.) Two highlights:
1. Nixon struggling with pill bottles:
I know it's probably not fair to judge Nixon for this. Physical coordination is not the same thing as intelligence. But it was hard not to think Jesus Christ the President of the United States wasn't smart enough to open a childproof pill bottle.
2. Nixon pointing out to his aides that Kennedy and Johnson also did the kind of dirty stuff Nixon was getting in hot water for - illegal wiretaps and break ins, etc.:
Nixon read over a list of people that Kennedy and Johnson had wiretapped for dubious reasons:
In other words, sure, Nixon was crooked, but so were his predecessors. Which I think is an interesting point. And it leads to the question: does Nixon really deserve his pariah-in-chief status? Or, perhaps it's better to say: aren't there plenty of other presidents that we should start considering pariahs as well?
Republic of Thieves drags on forever compared to the previous books. 150 pages and and I’m almost to the main plot.
Yeahhh
I think the past plotline in the book is really fun but the present plotline in it is like...I mean not bad but also you kinda don't super care about it and you're also kinda tired a bit of the Locke and Jean friendship being so easily exploited by various adversaries?
I’m at the point where I’m skimming past large parts of description because it’s just the same thing. I know Jean. I understand how he feels and reacts. I don’t need a page or two detailing his feelings about how he’s conflicted.
Also the grating back and forth between them and Patience instead of getting to the point. Just feels like padding.
I feel like the entirety of the first act that I’ve nearly finished could have been handled as a single prologue.
Republic of Thieves drags on forever compared to the previous books. 150 pages and and I’m almost to the main plot.
Yeahhh
I think the past plotline in the book is really fun but the present plotline in it is like...I mean not bad but also you kinda don't super care about it and you're also kinda tired a bit of the Locke and Jean friendship being so easily exploited by various adversaries?
To me it read like someone was trying to write a book in the style of Locke Lamora.
So my first free book on my 30 day trial is "The Altanis Gene". Ripped through the first 25 chapters last night. Pretty good so far. Appears to be a trilogy so if the first one is good I'll probably finish all 3 before the trial is over.
I also nabbed some old "Savage Sword of Conan" comics, but those don't work as well on the Kindle.
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Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino is very good. Sort of surrealist vignettes describing imaginary cities that are also all sort of aspects of the same city (thpoilerth)
I haven't read them yet, but a lot of people seem to enjoy Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels series.
In the maybe slightly less highbrow category I read a satirical sci-fi novel a very long time ago by an Italian writer called Stefano Benni. Think the book was called Terra! I literally remember nothing of it, other than that I liked it.
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I'm not sure it's true that King's endings can always be considered successful enough to 'pay back the loan of your attention', but I love the phrase and it's absolutely true about Abrams, who habitually grabs your attention and builds it up and then says oh the journey was the important thing and walks away.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Read Italo Calvino! Invisible Cities is very good; others worth diving into:
Cosmicomics
The Baron in the Trees
I must have gotten rid of it during one of my many moves, before reading it : (
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
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I remain really puzzled that I haven't read it before this point, because it's really my jam; I wonder why no one ever recommended it to me? Maybe they assumed I'd read it already for class or something, but it was never taught to me and I guess I just sort of lacked the cultural literacy to ever have read anything by Kafka, although of course I've been vaguely aware of where he's situated in literature.
Anyway, interesting and short read, recommended if you enjoy psychological novels and some Gogol-ish surrealism.
God, there's this scene where he goes into a room in his office and the two guards that arrested him are being flogged in there, and there's a whole interaction; and then the next day he comes back and they are still there, the same scene--and it's just presented in the same way that this sort of thing is in Gogol and I've always wanted to understand a bit more what to do with phantasmagoria in novels, or I guess to dive deeper into what it's doing in the novel, especially when it's just presented as happening, and not later suggested/declared to be a dream/hallucination/etc
Some of his short stories are pretty on point too.
Happy memories of sitting in a cafe in Prague drinking a beer and reading a Kafka collection and then they brought me an entire goddamb ham hock all roasted up and I had to stop reading for a bit.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
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No, it's more "Jesus, Ursula, that's enough... you can - wait, is that chainsaw OH GOD"
I picked up Republic of Thieves since I’ve been meaning to catch up on that series but after that think I’m gonna browse the library’s nonfiction.
Man, I don't miss that job where I was getting through up to a book a day while travelling.
Becky Chambers must be Jewish, right? Her feelings about the diaspora culture of the Exodus fleet are insanely Jewish.
That said, I have not read the book yet and am myself from one of the probably least diasporaed cultures there is (Denmark's been an independent kingdom for a long, continuous time).
Read Sugar and Swing some time ago, two OGNs dealing with romance and unconventional relationships (part of the Sunstone/Blood Stain thing Top Cow is doing). For reviews, see the GV board. Short version: I liked Swing, but not Sugar.
Currently reading In The Court of the Yellow King, an anthology with short stories dealing with Robin Chambers the King in Yellow. Quality of the individual stories is a bit up and down so far, but I think I only like horror fiction in short stories. Longer stories tend to either undermine or over explain their main concept (also having lost all interest in anything to do with zombies and vampires, I don't see a lot of things that interest me on the horror shelves at my local book-stores.) The King in Yellow also has not been done quite as much as its cousin, the Lovecraft mythos, so there still is some room for different interpretations there.
I...did not get that vibe, but am wondering what drew you to that conclusion, because sometimes I miss Really Obvious Things.
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Nor did I but the list of media I've consumed that would give a strong Jewish diaspora vibe, where I'd have noticed it is something along the lines of:
[li] The Yiddish Policemen's Union [/li]
so it may not be a terribly well tuned sense for me.
(No that's not a joke...)
Hmm I can't put my finger on it specifically, but the way human people in the book relate to their ancestry and race and nationality
The way Sawyer feels about going to the Fleet is very similar to the tangle of feelings that one feels as a diaspora jew going to israel sort of (although it's not a 1:1 thing, and in a way there's also the sense of going to the Old Country rather than to Israel, although the communal/utopian idealism nature evokes the kibbutz feeling of the latter (but the sense of run-down poverty evokes the former)--it's a bit of both)
The sense of written preserved tradition and ritual with the Archives is very strong, again not uniquely jewish or anything, just has a bit of that feeling about it
The part where Tamsin is talking about how, ok, the Harmaginians who were around during GC saying we weren't worth admitting to the galactic community aren't still around, but their descendants are and the structures they built are is also somehow quite resonant
I think if I went through and did a close reading and were better at a certain type of literary scholarship I would be able to pull together a long essay about this; sorry I am being annoyingly unspecific. Just something about how when Sawyer is at the funeral at the beginning and they're like, are you Exodan? And he's like, 'yeah well no well I mean a ways back right my great grandparents'--that sort of diaspora identity. I'm not saying she put secretly jewish characters or symbolism in it or anything, just that it has that feel.
Anyway, this was a good book and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I don't think there needed to be a prologue taking place 4 years prior to the main events--gave things a slow start, and there was pretty much 0 to be gained from seeing Kip as a 9 year old, for example--but I did like the epilogues taking place a few years after.
Yeahhh
I think the past plotline in the book is really fun but the present plotline in it is like...I mean not bad but also you kinda don't super care about it and you're also kinda tired a bit of the Locke and Jean friendship being so easily exploited by various adversaries?
1. Nixon struggling with pill bottles:
I know it's probably not fair to judge Nixon for this. Physical coordination is not the same thing as intelligence. But it was hard not to think Jesus Christ the President of the United States wasn't smart enough to open a childproof pill bottle.
2. Nixon pointing out to his aides that Kennedy and Johnson also did the kind of dirty stuff Nixon was getting in hot water for - illegal wiretaps and break ins, etc.:
Nixon read over a list of people that Kennedy and Johnson had wiretapped for dubious reasons:
In other words, sure, Nixon was crooked, but so were his predecessors. Which I think is an interesting point. And it leads to the question: does Nixon really deserve his pariah-in-chief status? Or, perhaps it's better to say: aren't there plenty of other presidents that we should start considering pariahs as well?
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
I’m at the point where I’m skimming past large parts of description because it’s just the same thing. I know Jean. I understand how he feels and reacts. I don’t need a page or two detailing his feelings about how he’s conflicted.
Also the grating back and forth between them and Patience instead of getting to the point. Just feels like padding.
I feel like the entirety of the first act that I’ve nearly finished could have been handled as a single prologue.
To me it read like someone was trying to write a book in the style of Locke Lamora.
Worth checking out the thread
Also now I'm gonna read Pride, a YA P+P remix featuring characters of color
On the other YA might put it on a level I can actually deal with. Thread indicates the language is updated which would help a lot.
I would like deets after you read it.
It was fairly good but there's a lingering sense that you're reading firefly fan fiction.
It was naive of me to think I was almost there.
I also nabbed some old "Savage Sword of Conan" comics, but those don't work as well on the Kindle.