Recently finished books?

[victorianfan]

What books have you recently read and how do you like them?



The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens 5/5

[mal4mac]

Barnaby Rudge - Charles Dickens 5/5

[Venerable Bede]

Can I rate out of 10?

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo 8/10

[Dark Muse]

Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel-4/5
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber-4/5
The Quincunx by Charles Palliser-4/5
The Count of Monte Cristo by Duma-4/5

[Greta Kin]

Pale Fire - 3.5/5

[kiki1982]

Die Marquise von O/Das Erdbeben in Chili - Kleist 7/10, very nice, but a bit weird, Italians and Chileans speaking German...
Palace Walk (yes, I am finaly almost finished!) - Naguib Mahfouz 8.5/10. Great story, although some knowledge on Egypt is required... The Dutch tanslation by Richard Van Leeuwen got better towards the end, but he made gender mistakes and thus made reading somewhat an aggravating experience at times. I wrote to the publisher with my concerns, but got no reply.

[aliengirl]

Mansfield Park - 4/5
Sense and Sensibility - 5/5

[Big Dante]

The Sound and the Fury 3.5/5

[mortalterror]

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Read Tolstoy's novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich. It was very well written, and like the rest of his work I've read, some of the greatest psychological fiction I've ever seen. However, I did not like it. He may have a flawless style, masterful intellect, and an observation of life and society which is better than a mirror... I mean it's bordering on magical, but I still don't like his books. During a lot of this novella I found myself mentally comparing it to Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, especially when he gets this homoerotic fixation on a healthy manservant. I know that this is supposed to be a harmless projection of desire for a symbol of vitality the same as Kafka's panther in The Hunger Artist, as this fellow is slowly wasting away, but when you have a dude hold your legs on his shoulders all night and you only feel good when he's touching you, that's a little gay.
The Collected Poems of C.P. Cavafy

Probably my favorite collection of 20th century poetry since The Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot. Cavafy is the greatest Greek poet of the 20th century and a top 5 front runner for best poet of the era, along with Rilke, Neruda, Eliot, and Lorca. The difference between him and them is how simple and prosaic his writing is. It owes much of it's precision of form to a heavy classical influence, although sometimes his poems are reminiscent of Browning's monologues. The narrators of his poems are frequently Greek's situated in the distant past commenting upon the fall of their civilization. However, a great deal of his poetry has to do with his homosexuality, which I could do without. One thing which I regret about the collection, it doesn't seem to have any clear magnum opus. There is no Wasteland, no summing up of and condensing everything he's tried to write about. We have his Ithaka, The Horses of Achilles, or Waiting For the Barbarians but they are soon devoured and we are left wanting more. The size of his volume is pitiful as well. Though each phrase is perfectly turned, and every line sparkles with clear lucid intensity of focus, there couldn't be more than 200 poems to sign to his name. The guy worked in utilities all his life and never published his poems. It's a stark reminder of how few poems Eliot has left us, and how it could have been even worse had he never left his job working for the bank.
The Essential Akutagawa

Finished The Essential Akutagawa today. He is definitely one of the greatest short story writers who has ever lived. Even his experimental and autobiographical stuff produced at the tale end of his career are fascinating. Stories like Autumn Mountain or In a Grove could have been written by Borges they contemplate complicated modern philosophical issues about perspective, memory, and the nature of reality. Stories like The Spider's Thread are verging on the parable and could have been written by Kafka. Then he does this weird occult horror thing in Hell Screen which seems straight out of Poe. Cogwheels felt a little like De Maupassant toward the end when he was going insane with the paranoia and morbid outlook on life. The suicide note reminded me of Hemingway, he is always so lucid and concrete. There are no flourishes to his style, no wasted movements either. It's an art of precision and restraint. His short stories are all the perfect length. Soseki and Tanizaki can write good short stories, but they will use the techniques of novels and feel like novels. Everything is natural and perfectly suited to it's form in Akutagawa. I loved reading them.
Rameau's Nephew

Read Rameau's Nephew by Diderot. Liked it. Good ideas, so so writing. Philosophical conversation between a sage and a fool, reminiscent of Socrates dialogues, about the proper conduct of life. The fool is often very sharp, a Machiavellian character. The bulk of the dialogue is his, and he is the more fully drawn and compelling character.

I also read Dryden's Preface to his Fables Ancient and Modern. He is a very good writer, and a very intelligent man, though he does seem to ramble a bit.
Rabindranath Tagore's Selected Poems

Read Tagore's Selected Poems. Liked his poems from the 1880s and 1890s but almost none afterwards. Brahma, Visnu, Siva is great, as is Megaduta, Broken Song, and Snatched by the Gods. The later poems seemed somehow impersonal.

Read Rabindranath Tagore's short story The Living and the Dead and Joao Guimaraes Rosa's short story The Thin Edge of Happiness. Not much to either.

Read ETA Hoffman's short story Don Juan. Little more than an essay on Don Juan.
Alcools by Guillaume Apollinaire

Read Guillaume Apollinaire's Alcools. Half of this book could have been written by T.S. Eliot in his prime, half is garbage, which makes sense since it's a collection of his poems from the previous 15 years. It's got his juvenilia mixed in with his mature work. Either way though, this book must have made a huge impression on the French of the time, equivalent to what The Wasteland did to English audiences. Now, I guess I have no choice but to read the rest of his artistic output. The poem that really stood out to me was Mirabeau Bridge.
The Black Heralds by Cesar Vallejo

Read The Black Heralds by Cesar Vallejo. He is considered one of the greatest Latin American poets of the twentieth century, but I don't think he's as good as Neruda, Rilke, or Eliot. His style is a lot like Paz or Neruda's. He's one of those emotional poets who's poems don't make any sense, but he throws words together in unique combinations. He's always verbing a noun. The best poem is the first poem The Black Heralds. I was also reading Ruben Dario's poems some more and really loving them. It may have just been the translation, but I noticed today that he has hints of Walt Whitman in his style.

[deguonis]

I've read 27 books this year and these are the last ones in the list:

The secret of the creek‎ - Victor Bridges


The secret of the creek is a first-rate thriller where the forgotten writer Victor Bridges keeps you engrossed in the story no matter what.

Fountains of faith - William Arthur Ward


Good

Life's a pudding: an autobiography‎ - Guy Nickalls


What a pity this book is out of print. Too many third-rate books we find in the bookshops today that aren't worth a second of our time and this masterpiece of the autobiography is no longer in print. I think that means I like it.

My life and hard times‎ - James Thurber


I thought it was going to be much better due to the reviews I've read overpraising this book. Not bad at all but I don't know what is so fantastic about My life and hard times

What the doctor ordered‎ - Victor Bridges


Another book that's no longer in print because people nowadays pay too much attention to authors who don't deserve the fame they have while Bridges is unfairly forgotten.

The story of my life‎ - Helen Keller


Famous book. All of you know it. Good.

Max Flambard‎ - John Bede Dalley


This one should be back in print at all costs and as soon as possible. That's a good compliment, I believe.

[Venerable Bede]

I just finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. I'd give it 8/10.

[KatnissEverdeen]

Mockingjay (I've read it 6 times now..) by Suzanne Collins.
I give it a 100/100

[Pierre Menard]

Sorrows of Young Werther - Goethe (Michael Hulse translation)

5/5

Loved it. Quite beautiful.

[Panglossian]

The Conversions by Harry Mathews. Score: 6/10. Plus points for peculiarity. Minus points for lack of character. Felt a bit academic.

[Buh4Bee]

Water for Elephants 6/10

[dfloyd]

I first read Tom Sawyer when I was seven, more then 60 years ago. I have read most of his work and just finished Innocents Abroad, A Twain travel book writen with sustained irony. Twain's descriptions of the Holy Land and the supposed relics he viewed are especially relevant today with all that is going on in Syria, Jerusalem etc.

I have one more Twain book in my library, Roughing It, that I will read shortly. This one is about his mining days in Nevada. Last year I read his autobiogrphical Life on the Mississippi. Twain can e enjoyable even when he is doing the most mudane of things.

I highly recommend A Tramp Abroad and Innocents Abroad. You'll be laughing all the way through both.

[laymonite]

I just finished Michel Houellebecq's Les particules elementaires, which was quite interesting. I especially liked the strong allusions to Poe's "Annabelle Lee." Houellebecq also renewed my interest in sociology, specifically Comte's positive philosophy.

4/5

[tonywalt]

I just finished 'the death of ivan ilyich'. good one-recommend it.

Also, 'you never give me your money' by Peter Dogget. This book is about the Beatles massive money suabbles at breakup and post break up. Probably Beatles fans only would enjoy.

[Calidore]

Just finished John Varley's Red Lightning trilogy--excellent.

[Panglossian]

The Medusa Frequency by Russell Hoban. 7/10 ~ a good mix of reality and dream.

[Leobloom]

The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster
Original, captivating, beautifully written, clever - highly recommended, 5/5

[Venerable Bede]

Just finished The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. It is an excellent book, with a beautiful, classic quality that makes it one of my favourite books. I give it a 9 out of 10.

[Dialectic]

Just finished "John Adams" by David McCullough several minutes ago. VERY well done.

[lieasleep]

Just finished The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. It is an excellent book, with a beautiful, classic quality that makes it one of my favourite books. I give it a 9 out of 10.

going to look it up. started the open work by him. really liked it but took me like an hour to get through two pages. excited to read this

[intoxicatedsoul]

the master and margarita by mikhail bulgakov
.... timeless - an original, brilliant and beautiful novel.

[kiki1982]

Thérèse Raquin - Emile Zola, 8.5/10. I would give it a nine, but it slackened somehow after the passion and comedy bit. As it drew to the end though it got really sad. I think the bit in the middle could have been shortened a little bit so he did not have to repeat the same thing over and over.

Though the bit about the mortuary, the cat crushed against the wall and the end were truly marvellous.

[Gregory Samsa]

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré.
It's was good and thrilling, but not my favorite genre.

[Pierre Menard]

The Fall - Camus

Really liked this one. Some genuine wisdom in here. And Camus' style has grown on me rapidly since my re-read of The Outsider.

[drumorama0]

Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut 2/3
-Fun to see Vonnegut building toward his signature style; his short chapters make it an easier, faster read; it's no Slaughterhouse or Galapagos, but it's alright.

Breakfast At Tiffany's - Truman Capote 2/3
-Pretty gorgeous writing as always; just seemed like most things that happened were unstructured in a way, but not bad.

Dialogue Between A Priest And A Dying Man - The Marquis de Sade 1/3
-Tedious to follow, difficult to understand...I'm glad it was short; hope his later writings are better.

[oanna]

The Chocolate Lovers' Club by Carole Matthews - it's a nice book to read when you need to relax. 4/5

[Fafnir]

I'm a couple off hundred pages of finishing Les Miserables, whilst I thoroughly enjoyed the plot itself, I found Hugo's digressions to be too numerous and obscure. I caught myself speed-reading through large chunks simply because the I had no idea who the historical figures he was discussing were or because he was describing a now non-existent or long forgotten aspect of Parisian life.
The novel was epic in the truest sense of the word and you get the impression that he perfectly encapsulates the period. Even with my limited knowledge of history I feel I 'know' the France of that era.

It's The Great French Novel in the same sense that The Great Gatsby or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is The Great American Novel.

[Panglossian]

Child of God - Cormac McCarthy. Bleak, dark, poetic, compelling. 7/10

The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch - Ladislav Klima. Gothic horror: funny and perverted. A German aristocrat gets married to a strange woman and goes seriously nuts in his castle. 8/10

[Kundan]

Such a long Journey by Rohinton Mistry. Its a fantastic book.

Read the summary and reviews at Stack your Rack (http://www.stackyourrack.com/such-long-journey-rohinton-mistry-book-0571245889)

[country doctor]

last week the doc polished off 'the idiot', 'the stranger' and a bio on charles lindberg...this week he's working on mary chesnutt's civil war diary and 'the razor's edge'...

ROAR!

[Leo Bloom]

Paul Auster. The Brooklyn Follies
Paul Auster. In the Country of Last Things
Joseph Conrad. The Shadow-Line


and a bio on charles lindberg...

I've read last month about him too. "The Plot Against America" - alternate history book by Philip Roth.

[country doctor]

this was the berg bio...a pulitzer prize winner, it's main flaw is that there's not a word about his mistresses and other children...but you can definitely see the plausibility of the affairs from the time he spent away from his wife on all his jaunts around the world that the book documents thoroughly...

his wife suffered immensely from the marriage...one has to wonder if she ever suspected the truth...

[endgame]

lady chatterley's lover by lawrence. a strange book o.o did anyone read it?

[ChicagoReader]

American Psycho, both good and bad. Much too repetitive for my tastes with the constant references to what everyone is wearing and on and on. I understand it was a satirical piece but it was just too much in my opinion, especially the parts that were solely about bands. Otherwise a fairly enjoyable read.

[m2vihand]

It's not a book: The bet by Chekhov.

[ChicagoReader]

It's not a book: The bet by Chekhov.

Great story though, one of my favorite short stories

[kiki1982]

Haha, if it is alone in a book then it is a book :D

[m2vihand]

Actually I read that on Kindle. :D

[Leo Bloom]

"The Dead" by James Joyce

[m2vihand]

In Cold Blood.
In fact reading that I did not have cold blood.:D

[Buh4Bee]

lady chatterley's lover by lawrence. a strange book o.o did anyone read it?

I read it and I really enjoyed it. Why did you find it to be a strange book?

[ChicagoReader]

Horse Soldiers, story of the first soldiers in Afghanistan post 9/11, very interesting read, learned a lot about the cultures there and also about the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

[Fafnir]

Yesterday I finished Tender is the Night (1934 edition).
I enjoyed the non-linear narrative, how Fitzgerald initially portrays the seemingly perfect group of friends through Rosemary's eyes only to slowly reveal their flaws.
I imagine that in the edited version, the sudden shift to Rosemary's perspective would have seemed like an intrusion when placed in the middle of the novel. I also liked the sense of mystery surrounding the event in the bathroom which would have been a shame to have lost.

[TheChilly]

Fyodor Dostoevsky- Notes from Underground

Brief, but surprisingly dense (though I did like the first half better than the second half).

[m2vihand]

Could you give any further opinion about that book please? I read Crime and Punishment from Dostoevsky, and I liked it. How good is that compared to Crime and Punishment supposing you have read that?

[Heteronym]

My last novel was Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, a hilarious novel disguised as a Jewish-American's diatribe against his family, his people, the woamn in his life, and the strict upbringing that has left him paradoxically feeling guilty and shameful of what he loves most in the world: sex; sleezy, depraved, filthy sex.

Alexander Portnoy is a great character and the first person narrator was never better used in a novel; if you're going to write a novel in the first person, this is the level of self-deprecating honesty you have employ. Alex doesn't waste words describing objects and rooms; he describes himself, with a disturbing candour, down to the last sordid detail, in a tone that reeks of inferiority complexes and childhood neuroses, but at the same boasting about his own moral depravity.

What a trip! I hadn't read anything this good and funny by Roth in a long time.

[Pierre Menard]

Bend Sinister - Nabokov

Really enjoyed it. Wonderful poetic writing and beautiful imagery and wordplay. I'm catching the Nabokov bug, I think.

[endgame]

i love "the dead" by Joyce. it's simply great. i love joyce and think he's absolutely one of the greatest writers of all times. i also saw the film based one this novel. very well done! try it :)

[endgame]

i never read a book like this before . i like lawrence because he was very bold .. i think he reached his own climax here but maybe there are too many details describing some actions in the book.. thats all :)

[m2vihand]

The lady with the dog (Chekhov)