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text 2017-04-28 01:22
WTF? New Shelves
Winter's Tale - Mark Helprin

I've decided to add some new shelf tags to my blog. 

 

Firstly, inspired by "Lincoln in the Bardo," (which I have not yet read) I'm going to add a shelf called "What the Heck," or, "WTF?" This shelf will be dedicated to books whose premise, or plot, or characters are weird enough for me to say, "What the heck did I just read?" And that's usually a good thing.

 

Top of the list: Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale." Also on the list (or soon to be): Nabokov's "Pale Fire" - perhaps the ultimate WTF novel. Probably some stuff by my beloveds Chabon and McEwan. You get where I'm going here.

 

"Winter's Tale" also reminds me of another tag that's important to my literary life and needs to be added: "New York Stories." I've only visited the city once (what a trip), but it's held a huge place in my reader's imagination throughout my life. I need to remember to tag my New York Stories as I read them. 

 

-cg

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review 2015-11-16 22:39
Humans of New York - Stories
Humans of New York: Stories - Elizabeth Brandon Stanton

This is the third compilation of Brandon Stanton's work to be published. This book is also structured one portrait at at time. The accompanying stories are more in depth, dealing with any and all aspects of life. I am amazed by intensely personal details people are willing to share in this forum. I love Brandon Stanton's work and will continue to follow his daily reminder that every person - every single one - has a story if we take the time to listen.

 

Read my complete review at: Memories From Books - Humans of New York: Stories

 

 

Source: www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2015/11/humans-of-new-york-stories.html
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review 2014-03-16 00:00
Nature Stories (New York Review Books Classics)
Nature Stories (New York Review Books Classics) - Jules Renard My favorite essays were the first two, about how the sweetly intense way some people respond to nature. The rest of the pieces (1-2 pages each) are about specific animals. I'm not sure I liked many of those as well. They tended to anthropomorphize the animals, which didn't work for me. I wasn't expecting that. I like his writing style, just not so much his approach to describing different animals. Hmm. It's a NYRB title and is very prettily published. Maybe I'll come back to it late.
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review 2014-02-15 21:39
GO BUY THIS
Paris Stories - Mavis Gallant,Michael Ondaatje

 

                I almost didn’t buy this book.

                But I’m glad I did.

                I don’t think I have read Gallant before picking up this book, unless it was in college during the Canadian Literature course I took.  But wow.

      

          Paris Stories is somewhat of a misnomer as half the stories don’t take place in Paris.  The overarching theme of these stories seems to be that what people see and what actually is – in terms of relationships, reality, or anything else.  They are about creative beings.

  

              Many of the stories are just so stunningly beautiful and can turn so suddenly. 

 

               In terms of style, Gallant seems to be the love child of Austen and Twain (if Twain had actually liked Austen).

 

                The stories focus on families, for the most part.  A couple with children, a grandmother, a honeymoon couple, a woman and her tenet who is more than a tenet.

  

              It’s a good thing that the stories are so good that I have trouble deciding which one of them is my favorite.  There is “Mlle Dias De Corta”, a story told in letter form.  The narrator is one of those catty and endearing women.  Then there is “The Moselm Wife” which really isn’t about a Moselm wife.  It has the sentence, “He read steadily but cautiously now, as if every author had a design on him” (102).

   

             The stories are like Chinese boxes and Russian dolls.  Hidden parts, rich food, and great wine.

   

             Perhaps it is “From the Fifteenth District” a story about haunting but not in the way you think.  It is somewhat “Irina” about grandmother who is not what she appears to be.

                This review is crap because I cannot write about how truly wonderful this collection is.

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text 2014-01-03 17:16
10 Must-Read Books for January
The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking - Olivia Laing
MASTER MIND {Mastermind}: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova (Jan 3, 2013) (Mastermind) - Maria Konnikova
Little Failure - Gary Shteyngart
Leaving the Sea: Stories - Ben Marcus
Radiance of Tomorrow: A Novel - Ishmael Beah
Last Train to Paris - Michele Zackheim
Foreign Gods, Inc. - Okey Ndibe
A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee's Guide to Saving the World: A Novel - Rachel Cantor
Shovel Ready - Adam Sternbergh
The Human Comedy: Selected Stories - Jordan Stump,Peter Brooks,Honoré de Balzac,Linda Asher,Carol Cosman

2014 kicks off with the promise of cold and snow for many of us, making it the perfect time to just stay indoors and read books. Some of you might want to get caught up on the books you saw featured on the best-of lists that popped up at the end of last year, but the first month of the new calendar also offers a crop of great books. Here are some of the best to pick up now, or risk falling dangerously behind.

 

via Flavorwire: http://flavorwire.com/431672/10-must-read-books-for-january

Source: flavorwire.com/431672/10-must-read-books-for-january
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