What did we read in August?

[Adagio]

Hello September!

Had a great month of reading, here is what I got through:

Turgenev's Fathers and Sons - This was okay. I must admit I had high expectations and was a little disappointed. I mean the writing was decent and Bazarov was interesting but at the end of the day I was bored. 3/5

Zafon's The Angel's Game - Awful. Absolute tripe. Having enjoyed The Shadow of the Wind I thought I'd give this a go as a light summer read. Beyond cringe. Loaded with cheesey similies and romanticisms. The thing that really got me was: one of the characters is a writer who attempts giving writing 'guidance', throughout the novel, to his apprentice - this really did make the author look silly. 1/5

Dawkin's The God Delusion - This was interesting. I really like Richard Dawkins. He delivers with force and real concern. It really does feel you with awe at how beautiful the universe we live in is and how religion is unnecessary. I feel this is essential reading for the entire planet, especially in these times. 5/5

Achebe's Things Fall Apart - The title attracted me - from my favourite Yeat's poem. A great read. Ever since studying Howards End, Translations and The Tempest colonisation has been an interest of mine. I would like to read more on the subject. Also, after reading Dawkins it really does serve to fuel the fact that religion is, and can be, dangerously dictatorial. 4/5

Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury - My favourite of the month and now, along with his As I Lay Dying, one of my favourite books of all time. Absolutely mindblowing. How is it that Faulkner could write such powerful novels? Quentin's part alone stands as one of the best things I have ever read - such a dark solitude in his pages. I am addicted to Faulkner. 5/5

Nabokov's Lolita(re-read) - Prose perfection. The novel really does take a second reading to appreciate Nabokov's sly early mentions of Quilty and all his fantastic word-play and anagrams. A real masterpiece. If you haven't read it yet pick it up immediately. Nabokov's genius lies in the fact that he takes an utterly disturbing topic and depicts it with such beauty. 5/5

Remember to rate your reads!

[promtbr]

The Slynx-- Tatyana Tolstaya
In The Skin Of A Lion-- Michael Ondaatje
Aura-- Carlos Fuentes
A Wild Sheep Chase-- Haruki Murakami
No Longer at Ease-- Chinua Achebe
The Ghost Writer-- Philip Roth
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting-- Milan Kundera
The Green House-- Mario Vargas Llossa (not quite finished)

all reviewed on blog....

Four amazing novels in that group.

Achebe's Things Fall Apart - The title attracted me - from my favourite Yeat's poem. A great read. Ever since studying Howards End, Translations and The Tempest colonisation has been an interest of mine. I would like to read more on the subject. Also, after reading Dawkins it really does serve to fuel the fact that religion is, and can be, dangerously dictatorial. 4/5

Really can't recommend following up TFA with Achebe's No Longer At Ease highly enough. It takes up the story of Okwonko's grandson in "modern day" Lagos...it reveals Achebe's subtle and amazing ear and with an economy of style that belies the profound complexity in Post Colonial Africa . One of the better novels I have read this year (and I have read some heavyweights)...



__

[lupe]

Ap. J.-C, by Vasilis Alexakis (started in July)
Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
Murphy, by Samuel Beckett
Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, by Dinaw Mengestu
Les Bienveillantes (The Kindly ones), by Jonathan Littell (far from finished yet)

[The Comedian]

The Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost Finder -- William Hope Hodgson
Green Lantern (Rebirth) (trade-paper back)
Under the Sea-wind -- Rachel Carson
Walden -- Thoreau (my annual "spring" read of this got postponed)

& several trades of Kurt Busiek's Astro City.

[My name is red]

Oh this month was not very good for me,i didn't have much time to read unfortunately.But i loved every book i read,that's something very rare.Great books one after another,so unexpectedly satisfying.So i'd still consider it a Lucky Month!
In order of liking;
Oblomov by Goncharov
Killing a mockingbird by Harper Lee
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
Wise Blood by Falnnery O'Connor
Froth on the Daydream by Boris Vian(To tell you the truth,i had a little higher expectations for this one.)

And i know it's not cool but i also abandoned a few.Not that i didin't like them,i was just not in the right mood.

[Dark Muse]

The Girl with the Pearl Earring ~ Tracy Chevalier
Notes From Underground ~Fyodor Dostoyevsky

H.P Lovercraft:

The Outsider
The Rats in the Walls
Pickman's Model
The Call of the Ctchulu
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in Darkness

And I am very nearly finnished with Twenty Years After

[Drkshadow03]

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (link)

The Complete Poems of Catullus translated by Guy Lee (link)

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (link)

The Epicurus Reader translated by Brad Inwood and L. P. Gershwin (link)

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (link)

Wild Seed by Octavia Butler (link)

Select Plays by Roman Playwright Terence: The Girl From Andros, The Eunuch, The Mother-in-Law (link)

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (link)

Links go to my blog with reactions to each work. All of them probably include spoilers, you're forewarned if you care about such things. Wow, I got about ten works in this month, not bad!

[Mariamosis]

I only read two books this month, and fairly short books at that, although I have high hopes for September.

In August I read 'The Belly of Paris' by Emile Zola. I would give this book a 5/5, as with most books I have read by him.

I also read 'Tobacco Road' by Erskine Caldwell which was a very good book. I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline although I was a bit disturbed by the characters. I would also give this book a 5/5.

[grotto]

Mysteries - Knut Hamsun
Hunger - Knut Hamsun
Barabbas - Par Lagerkvist
Beware of Pity - Stefan Zweig
Fathers and Sons - Ivan Turgenev
A Confession and Other Religious Writings - Leo Tolstoy
The Reveries of the Solitary Walker - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

[Page Turner]

I only managed to complete one book this month but oh, what a book.

Don Quixote~Miguel de Cervantes 5/5

I'm also reading Dante's Divine Comedy one canto a day, so that should take a couple more months to complete.

[NickAdams]

The Anxiety of Influence - Harold Bloom N/A

Inferno - Dante Alighieri (I want to read it two more times, which I will do this month, before I give a verdict.)

Various poems from various poets.

[manolia]

“The virgin suicides” – J Eugenides
“Brideshead revisited” – E Waugh

[mal4mac]

Hello September!

Had a great month of reading, here is what I got through:

Turgenev's Fathers and Sons - This was okay. I must admit I had high expectations and was a little disappointed. I mean the writing was decent and Bazarov was interesting but at the end of the day I was bored. 3/5

...

Dawkin's The God Delusion - This was interesting. I really like Richard Dawkins. He delivers with force and real concern. It really does feel you with awe at how beautiful the universe we live in is and how religion is unnecessary. I feel this is essential reading for the entire planet, especially in these times. 5/5

I agree with you about Turgenev and Dawkins. I'm reading a very interesting riposte to Dawkins at the moment - Karen Armstrong, "The Case for God". First hundred pages 5/5 - amazing summaries of the idea of God in Hebrew, Asian and Greek philosophy/theology.

She only produces her arguments against Dawkins at the end of the book. Couldn't resist looking ahead and she seems to be mostly arguing against his "religious types deserve no respect" argument. She has a point I think.

So far I'm still a 6/7 atheist of the Dawkins variety. Anyway I must finish the book and read Dawkins again!

I've been reading/re-reading some of Shakespeare's comedies. The following scale is "relative to other Shakespeare plays" IMHO:

The Tempest 5/5
The Two Gentlemen of Verona 3/5
The Merry Wives of Windsor 2/5
Measure for Measure 5/5
The Comedy of Errors 3/5
Much Ado About Nothing 4/5
Love's Labour Lost 5/5
A Midsummer Night's Dream 5/5
The Merchant of Venice 4/5
As You Like It 5/5
The Taming of the Shrew 3/5

[Adagio]

I agree with you about Turgenev and Dawkins. I'm reading a very interesting riposte to Dawkins at the moment - Karen Armstrong, "The Case for God". First hundred pages 5/5 - amazing summaries of the idea of God in Hebrew, Asian and Greek philosophy/theology.

She only produces her arguments against Dawkins at the end of the book. Couldn't resist looking ahead and she seems to be mostly arguing against his "religious types deserve no respect" argument. She has a point I think.

So far I'm still a 6/7 atheist of the Dawkins variety. Anyway I must finish the book and read Dawkins again!

Glad to see someone agree about Turgenev, I thought it was just me.

Dawkins really delivers with force in his book and I can't help but agree with his "religion doesn't deserve as much respect as it receives" argument, but yeah he does come on pretty strong and I can see why that would cause a lot of controvesery. I will have to look into Armstrong's book, let me know how you get on with it!

[Desolation]

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, 4/5
Essays and Aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer, 5/5
The Trial by Franz Kafka, 4/5 (only for being unfinished)
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 6/5