What Are You Reading

[Fading Fast]

I've read TKAM at least three times, I think. Such a wonderful story. I have "Go Set A Watchman" on my shelf but haven't read it yet.

A lot of people were disappointed in "Go Set a Watchman" as, as noted, it's not as mature a work and (and I think this was the bigger reason) the morality of the characters is more complex and less pure. While that is more true to life, part of the beauty and joy of TKAM is its wonderful heroes and their clear, undiluted devotion to honor. If you do pull it off the shelf, I look forward to hearing your impressions.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I've read TKAM at least three times, I think. Such a wonderful story. I have "Go Set A Watchman" on my shelf but haven't read it yet.

Part of what makes Mockingbird an enduring classic is the humor, even the comedy. Scout's narration is often very funny. Since humor is often so subjective, that Mockingbird still makes you laugh 60 years later is remarkable.

The grownup Scout (forgotten her true name) in Watchman: I've only read the book once, and I don't think she saw or narrated things in the same way.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Plowing my way through another novel by Laura Kasischke, Suspicious River. A young woman in a tiny Michigan town takes to part-time prostitution at the motel where she works as clerk. She's definitely a broken bird, as the old saying had it -- her mother cheated on her father with the father's brother, who later killed the mother, for example -- but even she doesn't know why she's saving the money from her assignations. Or she hasn't decided to tell us yet.

ETA, 5/30: Gave up on it. Dreary, no likeable characters at all including the lead . . . maybe it's too subtle for my simple mind to comprehend.

 

[Fading Fast]

Finished "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford

Overall, I enjoyed it very much as the young (I think they are about 11 when they meet) love story was sweet but believable as were most of the historical and family plot twists that whipped the relationship around a lot. The period details were enjoyable - Seattle's pre-WWII Chinatown, "Japantown," Jazz scene and general vibe were all brought to life.

My only complaint is that too much modern moralizing seeped in which undermined some of the period feel. But so be it, despite claims to the contrary, all modern authors write from a perspective of modern morality. If you doubt this, pick up a concomitant-to-the-period piece of fiction and you be struck by the differences in attitude and morality.

It's not that the of-the-period book will be all backward thinking and prejudice - it won't, as you'll see the characters debating most of the morality issues we do today, but the context, angle, framework and default settings of these debates will be different from our modern ones which is the thing that modern authors can't seem to capture.

All that said, a fun read especially for fans of home-front WWII historical fiction.

 

[rocketeer]

Watershed Down by Richard Adams.
Just finished this fantasy novel about a group of rabbits and their adventures to find a new home.
In the film I had only ever watched the ending and was curious as the film came with a warning "Not Suitable for young children".
So the animation of the film is not quite Disney(made around 1978) but reading the book is something else. Full of violence, bullying, tender moments, frustration and tragedy. You could even through a little sex in there as well. Hollywood could replace the probably 'character rabbits' with its usual crop of A list personalities and make an action film based on this.
But as it is, the film and book will probably be dismissed simply because it is about rabbits, but you won't find a more moving death scene in any other film or book.

 

[greatestescaper]

Watershed Down by Richard Adams.
Just finished this fantasy novel about a group of rabbits and their adventures to find a new home.
In the film I had only ever watched the ending and was curious as the film came with a warning "Not Suitable for young children".
So the animation of the film is not quite Disney(made around 1978) but reading the book is something else. Full of violence, bullying, tender moments, frustration and tragedy. You could even through a little sex in there as well. Hollywood could replace the probably 'character rabbits' with its usual crop of A list personalities and make an action film based on this.
But as it is, the film and book will probably be dismissed simply because it is about rabbits, but you won't find a more moving death scene in any other film or book.

I've never read Watershed Down, but it's always been on my radar. I've finally finished an unabridged, though translated, The Count of Monte Cristo, and now am enjoying some brain candy in the form of Louis L'amours Catlow.

 

[DNO]

Finally found a copy of The Simple Act of Murder by Raymond Chandler. I just finished the superb essay by Chandler on the topic of detective fiction that acts as the introduction in Vintage Books edition. Excellent. Can't wait to start the short stories.

 

[rocketeer]

I've never read Watershed Down, but it's always been on my radar. I've finally finished an unabridged, though translated, The Count of Monte Cristo, and now am enjoying some brain candy in the form of Louis L'amours Catlow.

Unabridged is always best in english language or translated as there have been some excellent translations in the past. It all depends on the translators skill.
At the moment I am getting through a few classics, I don't go in for political satires such as Gulliver's Travels(Never finished) but some foreign books I have read are Gaston Laroux's Phantom of the Opera, and Hands of Orlac by Maurice Renard. Both excellent.
Watership Down was an unexpected delight as if the characters were soldiers or refugee's(very topical) in the past or todays world I feel it would still have worked.

 

[Fading Fast]

Watershed Down by Richard Adams.
Just finished this fantasy novel about a group of rabbits and their adventures to find a new home.
In the film I had only ever watched the ending and was curious as the film came with a warning "Not Suitable for young children".
So the animation of the film is not quite Disney(made around 1978) but reading the book is something else. Full of violence, bullying, tender moments, frustration and tragedy. You could even through a little sex in there as well. Hollywood could replace the probably 'character rabbits' with its usual crop of A list personalities and make an action film based on this.
But as it is, the film and book will probably be dismissed simply because it is about rabbits, but you won't find a more moving death scene in any other film or book.

I never saw the movie, but thoroughly enjoyed the book. It's been too long for me to remember many details, but loved Fiver (think that was his name) and was scared to death of General Woundwort (name?). Also, excellent job anthropomorphizing the rabbit world and using it to discuss a political / social structure.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

An interesting follow up book would be "Go Set A Watchman" by Harper Lee, published in '15 but written prior to "To Kill a Mockingbird." It is kinda a sequel / kinda a different angle on the same story - interesting and worth reading IMHO. I think it would have been more successful (although, clearly not as mature or complete a work), but it undoes some of the perfect morality of some of the characters in "TKAM" which, I think, turned off many.

Enjoy "TKAM -" a wonderful read.

My wife has never read the book, but has seen the movie. There are lots of laugh-out-loud moments when Scout makes an observation about people or society.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Watershed Down by Richard Adams.
Just finished this fantasy novel about a group of rabbits and their adventures to find a new home.
In the film I had only ever watched the ending and was curious as the film came with a warning "Not Suitable for young children".
So the animation of the film is not quite Disney(made around 1978) but reading the book is something else. Full of violence, bullying, tender moments, frustration and tragedy. You could even through a little sex in there as well. Hollywood could replace the probably 'character rabbits' with its usual crop of A list personalities and make an action film based on this.
But as it is, the film and book will probably be dismissed simply because it is about rabbits, but you won't find a more moving death scene in any other film or book.

Watership Down (for years I thought it was about ships at sea) is a pure-d thriller with rabbit characters -- fantasy the way it should be done. Adams's rabbits are not cute idealized Thumper clones; they are modeled on real rabbits, have the same habits and dangers as real wild rabbits. What Adams did that no one had done before was to give them an oral culture (their own language, their legends about the rabbit Robin Hood, "The Prince with a Thousand Enemies," and about Frith the sun, etc.), and weave it into a top-notch adventure story. At first it's a little slow (or maybe "measured" would be a better word) as Adams builds his world. By the time we hit the exploration of rabbit abnormal psychology, though, we're hooked, and then we get General Woundwort, one of the greatest villains in literature, and a breathless race to an epic double climax.

I can't recommend this book enough.

"All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and when they catch you they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed."

 

[Benzadmiral]

Re-reading, for the first time in longer than I care to think about, John Dickson Carr's 1941 The Case of the Constant Suicides. For those who don't know, Carr was one of the leading lights of the "Golden Age" of detective fiction, the master of the "locked room/impossible crime" story. This one features a young history prof going to Scotland for a kind of family conference, and a case of what maybe either murder or suicide: the family patriarch has died in a 60-foot fall from his room in the castle tower. Suicide is very unlikely -- but there's no way, it appears, he could have been murdered . . . unless the empty dog carrier found in the room after his death has some importance. . . .

What Carr did better than almost anyone was plot (God, could he plot!) and atmosphere. The impossible crime scenarios lent themselves perfectly to occasional shivery hints of the supernatural. Dispelled by rational explanations at the end, of course . . . but shivery moments indeed.

 

[rocketeer]

Next on my list, just started after Watership.
A picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Part of what makes Mockingbird an enduring classic is the humor, even the comedy. Scout's narration is often very funny. Since humor is often so subjective, that Mockingbird still makes you laugh 60 years later is remarkable.

The grownup Scout (forgotten her true name) in Watchman: I've only read the book once, and I don't think she saw or narrated things in the same way.

Read Mockingbird in the ninth grade & have never forgotten it. Think I can truly say it's one of the best novels I've ever read. Doubt I'll ever read the other book. Seem to recall reading an article before Watchman came out (or was even on the radar) that Harper Lee's publisher didn't like her first draft (with a racist Atticus) told her she could do better. And the resulting novel was Mockingbird.

Methinks someone saw dollar signs somewhere. *shrug*

 

[DesertDan]

Death In The Long Grass - Peter H. Capstick

 

[Nobert]

The Panda's Thumb by Stephen Jay Gould. It was a slog to the finish line after about 2/3 in. Just because, much as I find the natural history interesting and Gould's writing approachable, there are only so many ways he can make his (admittedly intriguing) points in a way that I can understand them without actually getting a degree in Paleontology.

 

[St. Louis]

Just started Night Shift, by Maritta Wolf. I wanted to read it after seeing Ida Lupino in the film made from the book (The Man I love.) For anyone who wants the nitty gritty details of Golden Era life, this book is wonderful. She's a great writer.

 

[Harp]

A lot of people were disappointed in "Go Set a Watchman" as, as noted, it's not as mature a work ...

Watchman is a first draft revised as To Kill a Mockingbird, and apparently Harper Lee was suffering dementia at the time of manuscript discover.
_____

The Dodgers recent sweep of the Cubs jogged memory reminder of a long intended read of the Brooklyn remove history.
Time to rummage through book shop stacks and scour Amazon offerings, then sock away until cold dark winter and baseball withdrawl to devour.

 

[AmateisGal]

Finished the fourth in the Poldark series, Warleggan, and am starting on The Black Moon. I'm zipping through these novels. They're incredibly well done.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Watchman is a first draft revised as To Kill a Mockingbird, and apparently Harper Lee was suffering dementia at the time of manuscript discover.
_____

The Dodgers recent sweep of the Cubs jogged memory reminder of a long intended read of the Brooklyn remove history.
Time to rummage through book shop stacks and scour Amazon offerings, then sock away until cold dark winter and baseball withdrawl to devour.

"After Many A Summer" by Robert Murphy. The be-all and end-all of what really happened between 1952 and 1957 -- and why. Thoroughly and exhaustively documented, and removes all real doubt about where the end responsibiliy falls.