Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Just finished Helena by Evelyn Waugh, which he said was his favorite of all the books he'd written. Hadn't read it in years, and enjoyed it very much. Have now started in on Scoop by the same author, one of my favorites by him. I've read it at least half a dozen times over the past 50 years.
Waugh's writing never fails to knock me out; lapidary prose polished to a dazzling finish. He is such a pleasure to read.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Little, Big by John Crowley. A strange and wonderful book.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Peter Heller's The River. Beautiful, gripping, tragic.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
calamus
Just finished Helena by Evelyn Waugh, which he said was his favorite of all the books he'd written. Hadn't read it in years, and enjoyed it very much. Have now started in on Scoop by the same author, one of my favorites by him. I've read it at least half a dozen times over the past 50 years.
Waugh's writing never fails to knock me out; lapidary prose polished to a dazzling finish. He is such a pleasure to read.
Another Waugh fan here. The first of his books for me was *A Handful of Dust* that I found in the library of St. Andrew's Anglican Secondary School in Grenada, where I taught many years ago. After that, *Scoop* and *Black Mischief* and then just about all the rest. I do need to dig a couple out for a summer re-read.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Also enamored of Waugh’s writing. Helena is one I only last year encountered and it’s my favorite of his.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Cemetery Road, by Greg Iles. About Mississippi and the river.
Toward the end of the novel, one of the characters holds out a contract and a Montblanc pen.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations, by Admiral William McRaven, USN Retired.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
The Living Great Lakes.
Very good read, mixing the narrative of a voyage through 4 of the lakes with history, stories, science and more.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish (this is really good--thanks for the recommendation, VertOlive) and The True Queen by Zen Cho.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
• Eleanor Catton - The Luminaries
A strange little book! Set during the New Zealand gold rush, and told something in the manner of a round or a Scheherazade story, with all the characters narrating their intersecting pieces.
I thought it worked, both the structure and the writing style. The solution did not end up being what I was expecting!
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Killing England... nice book
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. An expansion of a nonfiction article written for Outside magazine in which a young man walks into the Alaskan wilderness to attempt his dream of living off the land. The writer attempts to reconstruct the psyche and actions of the man from the journal and photos he left behind.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
*God Favors the Bold: Voices of the Texas Navy 1836 - 1845* edited by Michelle M. Haas. A compilation of first person accounts of life in the Texas Navy during the years of the Republic of Texas. Very interesting stuff.
This is another fine title from the Copano Bay Press.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Nomadland: Surviving America in the 21st Century —A young reporter spends several years documenting the lives of Americans who are living their lives out of RVs or cars sometimes by choice but mostly by circumstance. A whole subculture is laid out here featuring the Quartzsite, AZ gathering and the interesting concept of CamperForce set up by Amazon to recruit seasonal workers from among the itinerant.
Darned fascinating and maybe a little alluring.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
I just finished a clever book by Pierre Bayard, How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read.
Or did I?
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
I just finished Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, which I had bever read. What an amazing love letter to India and its culture!
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
The New Girl, by Daniel Silva.
The latest in the Gabriel Allon series.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Read this many many years ago and still remember it from time to time ."..though I'd prefer not to."