My August plan was far too ambitious, and although I read parts of each book on that list, it contained too many heavy-hitters, titles I plan to work through in the coming months.
The Jazz book looks interesting. I listen to a lot of that era Jazz, although I rarely read about music. I think I've read four books about music in my life (not counting something technical like music theory). I might crack the Aeneid one of these days, once I've made it though more of the Greek classics. I don't know about the Cinema book, but his noir book on the article you linked to looks really interesting.
I managed only two books this month.
The Power and the Glory: Life in the English Country House Before the Great War Hardcover
by Adrian Tinniswood. It's a good overview of Country House life. The initial chapters were a little architecture heavy, but later chapters get into things like fire, theft, marital scandals, and the cost to keep one of these places going.
There's No Home by Alexander Baron. This is an Imperial War Museum reprint of a novel from 1950 about a group of British army soldiers on leave in Catania, Sicily. It was surprisingly good, telling the story of the men and Italian women who make makeshift families for the two months while they rest after the Sicilian campaign. It's the 5th of these reprints I've read and they are all interesting in their own ways (only one has actually been primarily about combat)
It's hard to write well about music. Tye mostly covers the lives of Armstrong, Ellington, and Basie, but he does cover a good bit of the music without getting too analytical. It's a good balance.
Just my 2 cents, but I'd recommend starting with The Iliad, then The Odyssey, then The Aeneid, but opinions vary.
I don't think you can go wrong with Naremore's noir book. If you like it, you might try the interview book.
The two books you mentioned sound interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Andy, as always, an eclectic, interesting stack of books for the month!
I read Connie Willis' Doomsday Book -- good if you like 14th-century settings (or time travel). (I think she autographed my copy of To Say Nothing of the Dog, but I'm not lending it, even if I could find it :) ). Speaking of the 14th century, The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is one of my August books read. Listening to the multi-cast audiobook, I found some tales engaging, while others I could barely focus on. Still, it was a balanced mix of humor, morality play, love story, intrigue, and bawdiness. (Note the Oxford comma.) But the author does not reveal who won the free meal offered by the innkeeper for the best story! If you like the 14th-century, Eifelheim, by Michael Flynn is suspenseful.
Breakfast of Champions was mildly amusing, but I don't see why it is Alice Cooper's favorite book. Maybe my favorite entertainer hasn't read many books.
Believe it or not, I just started Out of the Silent Planet on audiobook two hours ago when i drove to Food Lion for sour cream and aluminum foil! I'll wait to read your August 15 post on the book until after I'm done (to avoid spoilers, of course).
Re: Shute: Have you read On the Beach?
After reading your description, I put Says Who? on my Books-to-Read list (between "Sarah Pinsker: We Are Satellites" (which, like your Kim, I did not finish the first go-round) and "Scarlet Pimpernel." (I know, my alphabetized list is a mix of first names, last names, and titles. Keeps it random.) (P.S. I gave Kipling's Riki-Tiki-Tavi 4 stars. )
Besides Chaucer, the books I finished in August included:
• The audiobook version of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, read by Scott Brick, one of my favorite readers. He did most of the voices fairly straight, but for the character J. R. Isidore (J. F. Sebastian in the film -- why would they change his name?), he mildly imitated the voice of the actor playing Sebastian, William Sanderson (you remember: "my other brother Larry."). I had forgotten most of the subplots and a LOT of the details from my 1982 reading of the book. Great examination of what it means to be human. (The film left so much out -- you'd have to do a limited television series to include all the characters and concepts.)
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N. K. Jemison. Another book that became due in Libby before i was done and I let it go because it didn't grab me. But having gotten through it this time, I appreciate the inventive creation of that world's society, the "gods" in captivity subplot and their mechanics, and the human drama of the girl-who-would-not-be-king.
• Darwin's Radio, by Greg Bear, on audiobook. The audio was surprisingly short -- I finished it in 3 days. Listed as having 448 pages, did the print version have large type or did I accidentally skip some? Maybe I had an abridged version. Dramatic start, then lotsa biology talk, academic squabbling, and multiple character confusion (audiobook, remember, so it's painstaking to rewind and find what I missed or forgot -- so I never do). But by halfway through when Bear narrows his focus to the two main characters, and the drama resumes, it flows nicely. After the big reveal, you kind of suspect how the story ends, and it did so, kind of petering out.
• Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Homes, by Paula McLain. I was attending Central Michigan University when I met Paula in our poetry group. I never knew her background as a foster child. Several years ago, she gave me writing advice in a letter, saying to be "fearless" (or was it "brutally honest"?), and she was certainly both of those in exposing her childhood being bounced from house to house. A very poignant and evocative history, and emotionally gripping, even as told with the dispassionate narrating style Paula used, maybe as a defense against reliving rhe emotions of the time. Still, it must have been tough to write. I would like to have seen more of her Michigan life near the end of the book, but she covered that in about three paragraphs.
• The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, by Mark Lewisohn. You have to be a fan to read every line in this book, and I am and I did. Lotsa technical details listing every Beatles recording session at Abbey Road, with a few other locations thrown in near the end. Few and far between were the interesting tidbits, like which songs were recorded by only one, only two, or only three of the Beatles, and who was out of town and why, but the points of view of the engineers and second engineers, and the occasional producers' comments, were certainly worth being expressed. Most fun was the description of how the songs were created, edited, molded, etc. Like I said, you have to be a fan. I have second copy for sale, btw.
Thanks for sharing, Joe. I may check out the Mark Lewisohn book, but I'm more eager for him to finish the last two volumes of the series that started with Tune-In. I'm hoping that (1) he lives long enough to finish them and (2) I live long enough to read them!
The Jazz book looks interesting. I listen to a lot of that era Jazz, although I rarely read about music. I think I've read four books about music in my life (not counting something technical like music theory). I might crack the Aeneid one of these days, once I've made it though more of the Greek classics. I don't know about the Cinema book, but his noir book on the article you linked to looks really interesting.
I managed only two books this month.
The Power and the Glory: Life in the English Country House Before the Great War Hardcover
by Adrian Tinniswood. It's a good overview of Country House life. The initial chapters were a little architecture heavy, but later chapters get into things like fire, theft, marital scandals, and the cost to keep one of these places going.
There's No Home by Alexander Baron. This is an Imperial War Museum reprint of a novel from 1950 about a group of British army soldiers on leave in Catania, Sicily. It was surprisingly good, telling the story of the men and Italian women who make makeshift families for the two months while they rest after the Sicilian campaign. It's the 5th of these reprints I've read and they are all interesting in their own ways (only one has actually been primarily about combat)
It's hard to write well about music. Tye mostly covers the lives of Armstrong, Ellington, and Basie, but he does cover a good bit of the music without getting too analytical. It's a good balance.
Just my 2 cents, but I'd recommend starting with The Iliad, then The Odyssey, then The Aeneid, but opinions vary.
I don't think you can go wrong with Naremore's noir book. If you like it, you might try the interview book.
The two books you mentioned sound interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Andy, as always, an eclectic, interesting stack of books for the month!
I read Connie Willis' Doomsday Book -- good if you like 14th-century settings (or time travel). (I think she autographed my copy of To Say Nothing of the Dog, but I'm not lending it, even if I could find it :) ). Speaking of the 14th century, The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is one of my August books read. Listening to the multi-cast audiobook, I found some tales engaging, while others I could barely focus on. Still, it was a balanced mix of humor, morality play, love story, intrigue, and bawdiness. (Note the Oxford comma.) But the author does not reveal who won the free meal offered by the innkeeper for the best story! If you like the 14th-century, Eifelheim, by Michael Flynn is suspenseful.
Breakfast of Champions was mildly amusing, but I don't see why it is Alice Cooper's favorite book. Maybe my favorite entertainer hasn't read many books.
Believe it or not, I just started Out of the Silent Planet on audiobook two hours ago when i drove to Food Lion for sour cream and aluminum foil! I'll wait to read your August 15 post on the book until after I'm done (to avoid spoilers, of course).
Re: Shute: Have you read On the Beach?
After reading your description, I put Says Who? on my Books-to-Read list (between "Sarah Pinsker: We Are Satellites" (which, like your Kim, I did not finish the first go-round) and "Scarlet Pimpernel." (I know, my alphabetized list is a mix of first names, last names, and titles. Keeps it random.) (P.S. I gave Kipling's Riki-Tiki-Tavi 4 stars. )
Besides Chaucer, the books I finished in August included:
• The audiobook version of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, read by Scott Brick, one of my favorite readers. He did most of the voices fairly straight, but for the character J. R. Isidore (J. F. Sebastian in the film -- why would they change his name?), he mildly imitated the voice of the actor playing Sebastian, William Sanderson (you remember: "my other brother Larry."). I had forgotten most of the subplots and a LOT of the details from my 1982 reading of the book. Great examination of what it means to be human. (The film left so much out -- you'd have to do a limited television series to include all the characters and concepts.)
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N. K. Jemison. Another book that became due in Libby before i was done and I let it go because it didn't grab me. But having gotten through it this time, I appreciate the inventive creation of that world's society, the "gods" in captivity subplot and their mechanics, and the human drama of the girl-who-would-not-be-king.
• Darwin's Radio, by Greg Bear, on audiobook. The audio was surprisingly short -- I finished it in 3 days. Listed as having 448 pages, did the print version have large type or did I accidentally skip some? Maybe I had an abridged version. Dramatic start, then lotsa biology talk, academic squabbling, and multiple character confusion (audiobook, remember, so it's painstaking to rewind and find what I missed or forgot -- so I never do). But by halfway through when Bear narrows his focus to the two main characters, and the drama resumes, it flows nicely. After the big reveal, you kind of suspect how the story ends, and it did so, kind of petering out.
• Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Homes, by Paula McLain. I was attending Central Michigan University when I met Paula in our poetry group. I never knew her background as a foster child. Several years ago, she gave me writing advice in a letter, saying to be "fearless" (or was it "brutally honest"?), and she was certainly both of those in exposing her childhood being bounced from house to house. A very poignant and evocative history, and emotionally gripping, even as told with the dispassionate narrating style Paula used, maybe as a defense against reliving rhe emotions of the time. Still, it must have been tough to write. I would like to have seen more of her Michigan life near the end of the book, but she covered that in about three paragraphs.
• The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, by Mark Lewisohn. You have to be a fan to read every line in this book, and I am and I did. Lotsa technical details listing every Beatles recording session at Abbey Road, with a few other locations thrown in near the end. Few and far between were the interesting tidbits, like which songs were recorded by only one, only two, or only three of the Beatles, and who was out of town and why, but the points of view of the engineers and second engineers, and the occasional producers' comments, were certainly worth being expressed. Most fun was the description of how the songs were created, edited, molded, etc. Like I said, you have to be a fan. I have second copy for sale, btw.
Thanks for sharing, Joe. I may check out the Mark Lewisohn book, but I'm more eager for him to finish the last two volumes of the series that started with Tune-In. I'm hoping that (1) he lives long enough to finish them and (2) I live long enough to read them!