The Millions

March 30, 2005

 

Review: Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis

coverMichael Lewis launched his successful career as an author with his book Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street, which is both a youthful memoir and a journalistic look at the inner workings of Salomon Brothers, a Wall Street firm that grew fat trading bonds and then crashed and burned. The book takes place, roughly, between the years 1984 and 1987, and so I wasn't surprised that the book reminded me of the movie Wall Street - just replace Gordon Gecko with Salomon's head John Gutfreund. At the beginning of the book, Lewis has just been hired, quite unexpectedly, by Salomon, and he takes us through his trajectory at the company, from the cut-throat training process to his days as a bond trader in London. From this vantage point, Lewis was able to watch the company, emboldened by spectacular success in the 1980s, become a symbol of corporate gluttony. Along the way, Lewis profiles many of the company's outsized personalities. He also delves into the intricacies of the bond market in such a way that the arcane becomes pretty readable. The book is also filled with anecdotes about the conspicuous consumption of those times and the raucous, inelegant trading floor, filled with foul-mouthed traders who threw phones and insults and reveled in their gluttony. Lewis' revelation was that the company (and its competitors) made profits at the expense of its customers, and, while the period that Lewis chronicles is interesting in its own right, its impact is somewhat diminished by the many corporate scandals and Wall Street improprieties that have occurred since the book was first published. Against this backdrop, Liar's Poker is no longer an exceptional story that defined an era, it is merely another moment in the cycle of Wall Street corruption and ensuing retribution that continues today.

- C. Max Magee @ 10:45 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post


March 25, 2005

 

A Brief Hiatus

I've got a lot of stuff going on right now. So I'll be taking a break from the blog for a few days. See you soon.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:12 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post


March 22, 2005

 

Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap: A review by Andrew Saikali

coverIt's a funny thing about expectations. They form so quickly, and often just as quickly, get shattered. Or else you're forced to re-evaluate, and scale down those expectations to something more realistic. And you have to do it all in lightning speed so that, before the actual experience is over, you've salvaged some sort of enjoyment.

But then every once in a while, on that rarest of occasions, the opposite happens. You pick up a newspaper, say, and read a glowing review of a young author's first collection of short stories. Then you notice that he's giving a reading in your very town four days later. The day comes and, well, you slink out of work early to get to the reading on time. Those expectations are beginning.

You're there at the reading and it goes off smoothly. The story he reads is engaging. Already you're thinking "could they all be this good?". Then during the break you chat with him and guess what - he's gracious and affable - a truly likeable guy. Completely unspoiled.

You take your signed book home. Part of your brain is already working double-time to counteract the hype. At the first hint of trouble, it's ready to lower those expectations. Part of your brain is buoyed by the reading and the chat. The rest of your brain is simply confused and, well, a little bit annoyed that you haven't cracked the spine yet.

So you do. And as you enter the world of Thai-American author Rattawut Lapcharoensap, as he leads you deftly through the pages of Sightseeing, you begin to realize something. You begin to realize that he's done it. He's given you seven small perfect stories. Each one as transfixing as the last. And yet each one remarkably different from the last. And still yet somehow each one the product of the same, distinctive voice. You realize that he's done it.

"Farangs" is a story of a half-Thai, half-American teen, working with his mother at a hotel in Thailand, and his courtship of an American tourist. You meet tourists who (as tourists tend to do) behave at their worst, their basest. There's a simmering hostility suggested between the locals and the farangs, and the first-person narration of this story (of all the stories) throws you right in the thick of it. There is an immediacy to the narrative. Very quickly you become part of the characters' day-to-day lives.

"At The Cafe Lovely", where you meet a Bangkok family and again you're plunged into their domestic life, in the author's powerful and poignant prose you can see, even smell, the place. Kitchens become alive. (Your craving for Thai food will be insatiable while you're reading these stories). You also see youthful rituals played out. And you'll find that the unfamiliar is suddenly not all that unfamiliar.

"Draft Day" places you in those tense hours leading up to the lottery to decide which young Thai youths will be sent into the army and which ones will be spared. The narrator's family's wealth and status suggests a possible reprieve but his best friend is not as certain of his fate, a brother having already been damaged by his time in the service. And Draft Day turns into a family affair. Domesticity leaves the kitchen and transplants itself in the waiting room.

"Sightseeing", perhaps at once the most heartbreaking and the most exhilarating of all the stories, finds the narrator and his mother becoming farangs themselves as they travel to a remote part of Thailand.

"Priscilla the Cambodian" reveals some long-held preconceptions among Thai and Cambodian families, and how these feelings are more entrenched in the older generations than the young. This was the story you heard at the reading even though, five minutes before the end, you became a reader's worst nightmare when you began coughing and wheezing uncontrollably. You tried to contain it. You failed.

"Don't Let Me Die In This Place." A wheelchair-bound American grandfather's tale of life with his son and Thai daughter-in-law in Thailand, seeing his "mongrel" grandchildren for the first time. Trying to see himself in them. This isn't an exotic story. None of these are. The author places you in the center of their lives. Right into their normalness.

And, finally, "Cockfighter," the novella which caps the collection. Again placing you within a drama full of dreams and economic desperation, honor and dignity. A tale of that blurry line between vengeance and justice. You witness, first hand, the arc of a family crisis, all told from the point of view of the daughter in the family.

Seven distinct first-person voices. Seven tales of the familiar among the unfamiliar. Seven stories told without a hint of gimmick. Just acutely-observed, slyly powerful storytelling from a literary voice you'll want to hear more of. So then, expect whatever you want from Sightseeing. Rattawut Lapcharoensap will blow your expectations out of the water. Highly recommended.

Read "Farangs" here.

- C. Max Magee @ 10:42 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Amazon adds Statistically Improbable Phrases

In their quest to add more and more arcane content to every page, Amazon recently added Statistically Improbable Phrases to their pages for books that have the "Search inside..." feature. Apparently, Amazon is using an algorithm to determine which phrases in particular books are less likely to appear in other books with some interesting, though not terribly useful, results. Or so it would seem to me. (Although there is the prospect of a third party using this data to come up with some interesting applications). Anyway, to see it in action, let's look at the page for Oblivion by David Foster Wallace, and you'll see this near the top of the page: " SIPs: consultant caste, executive intern, snoring issue, head intern, dominant village," those, apparently, being some of the Statistically Improbable Phrases contained within the book. Then, if you want you can click on one of the SIPs to see other books that contain it. Here's the short list of books that contain the phrase "snoring issue."

- C. Max Magee @ 10:37 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Some good posts and other notes

- C. Max Magee @ 10:15 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post


March 21, 2005

 

The New New Journalists

coverRobert Boynton, a journalism professor at NYU, has taken a look at the journalism landscape and determined that the craft has moved an iteration beyond Thomas Wolfe's anointing of a New Journalism in 1973. Boynton's book, which he has titled The New New Journalism looks at the more recent crop of in depth journalists - well-known for their long pieces in magazines like the New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly and for their bestselling books. A review in the New York Times describes the destinction Boynton is making this way: "If literary experimentation and artistic ambition were the New Journalism's calling cards, reportorial depth is the New New Journalism's distinguishing mark, Boynton insists." Though the boundaries of this "new new journalism" may be fuzzy, it's exciting to me that someone is assessing these books critically as group. My feeling is that these days books of in depth journalism tend to be more readable than most new literary fiction, and, perhaps more importantly, this "new new journalism" is able to deliver more of an impact.

Boynton's book is a collection of interviews in which he encourages the writers to discuss their methods (The New York Times review likens them to the Paris Review "Art of..." interviews.) Included in the book are interviews with writers like Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, William Langewiesche, Eric Schlosser and Michael Lewis. Here's an excerpt of his interview with Ted Conover. The collection is also well-received in the Columbia Journalism Review, which, however, expresses a wish that the book had come with a companion anthology. I agree that this would be nice, but, failing that, I though it might be worthwhile to list some of the books that these journalists have written (if only because I would like to refer back to it myself next time I have a hankering for some of the "new new" stuff.) So, here are the interviewees from The New New Journalism and some of the books they have written:

Update: Jessa at Bookslut compiles a set of links to articles by the New New Journalists.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:32 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post


March 19, 2005

 

Book Critics Winners announced

As others have mentioned, the winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced last night. Here they are with some links to excerpts and/or reviews if you want to know more about the books:

- C. Max Magee @ 6:42 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post


March 18, 2005

 

Upcoming Books: Matthew Kneale, Andrew Miller, James Salter

coverMatthew Kneale won the Whitbread Book of the Year award in 2001 for his maritime historical novel English Passengers. Now Kneale has a collection of stories out that takes a more contemporary look at traveling. Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance is about the complexities of exploring today's world. A review in The Scotsman says that Kneale's "'small crimes' are usually ones of hypocrisy from Europeans traveling in developing countries - well-intentioned souls suddenly confronted with the unpleasant realities of life among the picturesque peasants." Here's an excerpt from the book and here's a little essay by Kneale about some of his more harrowing moments on the road.

coverAs Hotel Rwanda helped raise the profile of genocide in Africa, a soon to be released British novel uses a similar, fictionalized tragedy as its backdrop. Andrew Miller's The Optimists is the story of Clem Glass, a photojournalist who returns home from Africa unable to come to terms with what he has witnessed there. A review in The Times discusses the difficulties in embarking on such a novel: "The novelist has to mediate a political event more skillfully than a journalist and the tension between subject and mediator is what should be driving the story. In The Optimists there is more awkwardness than tension." At the Meet the Author Web site (which is filled with video interviews with authors) Miller discusses what he was trying to accomplish with the novel. Update: a review in the Guardian.

coverJames Salter has a collection of short stories coming out in April called Last Night. Publishers Weekly says, "The reserved, elegiac nature of Salter's prose and his mannered, well-bred characters lend the collection a distanced tone, but at their best these are stirring stories, worthy additions to a formidable body of work." That formidable body of work, by the way, includes a previous collection of stories that won a PEN/Faulkner Award in 1989, Dusk and Other Stories. For another taste of Salter, here's his recent reminiscence of food in France from the New York Times. And here's a story from the new book.

- C. Max Magee @ 12:43 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Gourevitch and the Paris Review

Initially I found yesterday's announcement of Philip Gourevitch's hiring as editor of the Paris Review to be odd. I know him best for his journalism in the New Yorker and his much praised works of non-fiction, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families and A Cold Case, but he didn't seem to have the proper pedigree to head a magazine that is so prominent in its championing of short fiction. However, a look at the press release accompanying the announcement reveals that "Gourevitch holds an M.F.A. in fiction writing from Columbia University, and has published a number of short stories in literary quarterlies. He worked as cultural editor of the Forward in the early nineties, before turning to writing full time," which would indicate that he does indeed have experience both as a writer of fiction and an editor. Beyond that, perhaps from his experience with the New Yorker, Gourevitch may have inkling of what it takes to make an unabashedly highbrow publication both a critical and financial success. Many were dismayed, or at least apprehensive, when former editor Brigid Hughes was forced out, but I think that Gourevitch's appointment should leave Paris Review devotees cautiously optimistic. For more details and background on Gourevitch, visit Galley Cat.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:08 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post


March 17, 2005

 

Quick Notes

The Washington Post discusses the literary pedigree of the town where I was born, went to college, and got married.

A good review of Jonathan Lethem's new collection of essays, The Disappointment Artist in the New York Observer.

Got a nice note from Ulrich Baer, editor and translator of a new book put out by the Modern Library called The Poet's Guide to Life: The Wisdom of Rilke. Sound interesting. Have a look.

Why we blog.

- C. Max Magee @ 3:00 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post


March 16, 2005

 

Review: All This Heavenly Glory by Elizabeth Crane

coverThough Elizabeth Crane's All This Heavenly Glory is billed as a collection of stories, after just a few, I shifted into novel mode, which was easy to do, seeing as the whole collection is about one character viewed in many snapshots from the age of 6 to 40, Charlotte Anne Byers. Those who who have read Crane before will be familiar with her rambunctious, elbows-flailing prose, in which the dependent clauses become so laden that they at times break free into outlines and lists. The effect of this stylistic departure from standard convention is, miraculously, not at all gimmicky, because a) Crane manages to keep those piled up words from toppling over, and b) it is in keeping with the persona of the character that she has created to inhabit this book. Because All This Heavenly Glory, necessarily, touches upon many trials and tribulations of girlhood and womanhood, it seems likely that it will have the "chick lit" moniker attached to it at some point. So be it. But what this book really is is an unflinching character study of a complicated person. Charlotte Anne is raised on the Upper West Side, comes of age in the 1970s in a family branched by divorce and remarriage, and endures a decade of being lost in her 20's - both geographically and spiritually. She is both foolish and clever, endearing and infuriating, hopelessly falling apart and really good at "having it together." Not all at the same time, of course. Crane tells Byers' story episodically, filled with details and discursions, and though the book threatens to come apart under the pressure of Crane's furiously frantic stylings, she manages to pull together an overarching narrative that is telling and poignant, less - and therefore more meaningful - than the sum of its frenetic parts.

- C. Max Magee @ 4:27 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Review: 13: The Story of the World's Most Popular Superstition by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer

coverThere are probably scads and scads of books like 13. I've seen them in libraries and used book stores. They are books that take on one topic and mine it for endless anecdotes and historical curios, but they don't claim that by looking through the prism of the topic at hand, a reader can discern the entire arc of human history. The books are about what they are about, and all you need to do as a reader is sit back and be entertained and informed. John McPhee, who is very good at this sort of thing, once wrote a book entirely about Oranges, for example. Nathaniel Lachenmeyer does this sort of thing well, too. His book is an impeccably researched look at an old superstition. With every turn of the page the reader is presented with another odd relic that Lachenmeyer has dug up for our perusal: the existence of popular superstition-defying "13 clubs" at the beginning of the 20th century, for example. And onward the book moves through Friday the 13th, the missing 13th floor, and all the rest. Taken as a whole, the book is a nifty piece of well-researched reportage bringing to light the many murky progenitors of this now commonplace superstition.

- C. Max Magee @ 3:33 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Ask a Book Question: The 36th in a Series (Beyond Eco, Way Beyond Da Vinci)

John writes in with this question:
Anyway, I have a question about a book: As an Umberto Eco fan, and having read Foucault's Pendulum and loved it, I am skittish about becoming physically ill if I read The Da Vinci Code. Should I be worried? Did Eco already write the book and Brown stupidize it? That's the impression I get.
I haven't read The Da Vinci Code, but I suspect that you would find it entertaining but not, shall we say, satisfying. Read it, or don't. But how about some other books that you might enjoy which are more substantial and pleasurably complex (and much of this is just speculation because I haven't read all of these books): First, I'd like to recommend two childrens' series that - though they are written for kids - are loaded with allegory that make them rich reading, or rereading, for adults. They are the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman and CS Lewis' classic the The Chronicles of Narnia. I know, Narnia, it sounds ridiculous, but I reread the series as an adult and found the books to be full of intricacies to be mined. From the grown-up side of things, I'm told that Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon might fit the bill, as will his more recent, and enormous, Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, & The System of the World). If you don't mind a bit of a tropical lilt to your complex, fantastical fiction, I highly recommend trying out some magical realism. The The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis is a terrific, meandering tale, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude is similarly enjoyable, and you can't go wrong with the Collected Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges. I may be getting a bit far afield here... anyone else want to chime in?

- C. Max Magee @ 2:13 PM ~ comments: 1 ~ Links to this post


March 15, 2005

 

Upcoming Books: Seth Greenland, Amy Hempel, Joshilyn Jackson, A.L. Kennedy

coverJust out is The Bones, the debut novel of playwright and screenwriter Seth Greenland. The title of the novel refers to washed-up shock comic Frank Bones who tries to resurrect his career by calling on a now-successful sitcom writer acquaintance of his from years ago. The reviews are starting to come in on this one, and the sound pretty good. The Bones is described as "savagely funny" in the San Francisco Chronicle, which goes on to say that "Greenland elegantly avoids the usual Hollywood novel trap -- he doesn't dumb down or patronize his characters, and he provides them with pitch-perfect dialogue, the clipped, faux-avuncular patois of the tribe." Greenland also merits a profile by David Ulin in the LA Times. And to top it off Greenland has a guest column up at TEV today. Check it out.

coverAmy Hempel has a new collection of short stories out called The Dog of the Marriage, which was well-reviewed in the LA Times. To whit: "Short on dramatic incident, the stories risk running out of steam. Mostly they don't, propelled by Hempel's wit, language and love of fur. Moving through the collection, the reader grows increasingly intimate with Hempel's sensibility. The women she speaks through feel mortality penetrating aliveness at all times, but rather than being shocked, they find that inevitable and funny." "Beach Town" one of the shorter stories in the collection can be found here.

coverThe number one Booksense pick for April is Joshilyn Jackson's debut novel, Gods in Alabama. Jackson has a truly endearing blog called Faster Than Kudzu in which she publicly works through her first-time-author anxiety and excitement. (aside: I have to say that I love the recent trend of authors doing these sorts of blogs. It really does make me more likely to want to read their books.) Gods in Alabama is the story of Arlene Fleet, who has fled Possett, Alabama, and made a deal with God to stay on the straight and narrow so long as He makes sure "the body is never found." As I look around the Web, the buzz on this book is nearly deafening, and there seem to be expectations of this one being a big seller.

coverA.L. Kennedy's fifth novel, Paradise is getting some unabashedly good reviews. Publishers Weekly says "jaw-droppingly good," and I love this take on Kennedy from Richard Wallace in the Seattle Times: "In my household, when you review a book by A.L. Kennedy, you better keep a close watch on the merchandise. For when the time comes for double-checking the quotes you've chosen to include in your review, you can't find the book. That's how readable she is." The review goes on to describe the book as "a stunning depiction of alcoholism, as funny as it is sad, as ironic as it is romantic." If you must make up your own mind, an ample excerpt is available here.

- C. Max Magee @ 1:19 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

New Blogs to Visit

A brand new blog called The Happy Booker has arrived on the litblog scene, and its proprietor Wendi is wasting no time jumping in to the fray. Also worth noting: I Read a Short Story Today in which Patrick reads and discusses a new short story (almost) every day. It's pretty entertaining so far, but he should add comment functionality so we can get some discussion going.

- C. Max Magee @ 1:03 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post


March 14, 2005

 

Review: Balkan Ghosts by Robert D. Kaplan

coverI picked up Balkan Ghosts because I was interested in the subject matter, and I hadn't read anything by Robert D. Kaplan before this. It's interesting that this book was published in the "Vintage Departures" series because it might not have occurred to me that this book is a travelogue, even though Kaplan does spend much of the book on rickety trains and in decrepit hotels throughout the Balkans. So unmethodical are his travels that "travelogue" seems a misnomer. Nonetheless, Kaplan's descriptions of the Balkans just months after the fall of Communism are illuminating. At every turn, he is digging up hidden details unseen by Western eyes during the decades of communism. Through the shattered republics of Yugoslavia he travels, then on to Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Kaplan imbues the book with an impressive amount of historical context, going to great lengths to avoid the generalizations that are more typically employed to explain the seemingly perpetual strife of the Balkans. The book was published in 1995, the mid-point of a bloody decade in the Balkans, and it contains a good deal of forewarning of what was to come to pass in the region in the coming years. In this sense the book is impressive in a third way. Beyond a travelogue, beyond a regional history, Balkan Ghosts is the rare "current events" book that will not soon become obsolete.

- C. Max Magee @ 9:26 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post


March 10, 2005

 

Iowa Dispatch (Part 4)

The auditions are over, according to my friends in Iowa, now that Ben Marcus - aka the "Dark Horse" - has made his visit to campus to try out for the Director job. During the workshop students noted his nervousness, which they saw as a good sign, that perhaps he's more invested in getting this job than the other three candidates. Marcus handed out passages from published stories that complimented the stories being workshopped. Marcus also went above and beyond with his feedback on the stories, giving each one a three page, single-spaced typed response. At the reading, Marcus' short story "Father Costume" got mixed reactions. Many were confused, but some allowed that it was beautifully written. Marcus' craft talk appeared to get the best reception of all the craft talks. Instead of talking about literary theory, Marcus talked about how he runs a workshop and what kinds of seminars he teaches at Columbia. He talked about trying to be the ideal reader for each text in workshop, and about how he meets with students after their stories are up to help them figure out what of the numerous and diverging criticisms he/she should take to heart. When he opened the talk to questions, he was honest about the kinds of stuff he reads (from Carver to Munro to Barthelme) and the way he chooses applications. He said that often his favorite applicants at Columbia end up coming to Iowa, which proves that both programs can recognize good writing. He even passed out course descriptions of some of his seminars at Columbia, including one about how writers use language to produce emotion in the reader. Rumor mill: Marcus gets thumbs up from the poets and most of the students, but the fiction faculty isn't so keen.

So, that's it. Hopefully, we'll get another report when the final decision is made.

Previously: Richard Bausch, Lan Samantha Chang, Jim Shepard

- C. Max Magee @ 5:04 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post


March 08, 2005

 

Iowa Dispatches, Part 3

I heard from folks in Iowa about the visit by Jim Shepard for his "audition" for the Director spot. Shepard's sense of humor apparently sat well with students who appreciated the levity injected into the mock workshop that Shepard conducted. The mock workshop wasn't all funny stuff, though, and students were impressed with the thoroughness that Shepard brought to the discussion of the stories that were critiqued. The reading also went over well. Sheppard read a little from his novel Project X and a little from his collection of stories Love and Hydrogen. The reading was entertaining but also brief - by all accounts a plus for MFA candidates who doubtless sit through more and longer readings than almost anyone. For his craft talk, Shepard discussed Denis Johnson's story "Emergency." I'm told that Shepard's visit was the most well-received so far, but there are also rumors going around that Shepard has reservations about taking the job, which he touched upon in this article from the Des Moines Register. Next up: final candidate, Ben Marcus.

Previously: Richard Bausch, Lan Samantha Chang

- C. Max Magee @ 6:30 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post


March 07, 2005

 

Staying Sane: A Year in Reading by Emre Peker (Part 10)

coverA couple of weeks passed and I had the urge to read another novel, so using a trip to Chicago as the good chance it was, I picked up J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey. Again, I was amazed at the ease with which Salinger grasps the reader's attention and pulls him into the dialogues of Franny and Zooey. The Glass family is extraordinary in many ways and Zooey's rants reminds me of an older version of Vince Vaughn. I could not finish the novel on my flights to and from Chicago, which is just as well, because on Monday, after I got home from work I filled the tub a la Zooey, lay in it for half an hour, and finished the book. A friend of mine once mentioned that it was his favorite piece growing up and he'd read it once every week, I understand and respect his mania now. I think I shall turn to The Catcher in the Rye next and keep reading the genius that Salinger is.

I traveled to Charlottesville and back via train in the same week. During the thirteen hours I spent on the Amtrak couch, I luxuriously started and finished Orhan Pamuk's Sessiz Ev (silent house, La Maison du silence). I really like Pamuk, he is a pretentious, rich, aristocratic bastard in life but his novels are for the most part very successful in grasping certain periods of Turkey's modern history. I am afraid that Sessiz Ev has not been translated into English but you can read it in French if you so desire. In this second novel of his, Pamuk describes the visit of three siblings to their grandmother's residence an hour east of Istanbul. It is the summer of 1980, three months before the military coup, the youngest brother, now a senior in high school, wants to continue his education in the U.S. and has high capitalistic ambitions, the sister, a junior in college, is an ardent communist and would like nothing better than to see the fascists beat, and the older brother, a thirty-four-year-old drunken history professor, is aloof to everything and resembles his father and grandfather in his disconnect to the world. Sessiz Ev is a very interesting study of an important period in Turkey through common, unhappy and disgruntled characters.

My last pick of the year is a serious undertaking, Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. I am almost halfway through and enjoy the story, language, and the other novellas inserted in the middle. Clearly there is much to be said about Don Quixote but I will keep my reserve until I am done reading the whole novel.

And last but not least, I also picked up Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Lord Henry Wotton's opinions have forced me to put Don Quixote on hold and indulge in the vanity that Lord Henry propagates. Of course, more on The Picture of Dorian Gray once I am done, but let it suffice to say that I am currently thrilled by its brilliance.

[Thanks for sharing your year in reading, Emre]

Previously: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

- C. Max Magee @ 5:06 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post


March 04, 2005

 

Spring Break

You may have noticed that I haven't posted for a few days. I'm busy finishing up my work for the quarter, and I still have some more to go. But when I'm finished, I promise to share my spring break - via this blog - with all of you. See you then!

- C. Max Magee @ 7:29 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post


March 01, 2005

 

Hardcover, Softcover... iPod Shuffle?

Yesterday, Scott posted the good news that six Bay Area libraries are making audiobooks available as downloads that readers can listen to on their digital devices. At least one other library appears to be jumping on the digital download bandwagon, but this one is providing the mp3 player as part of the deal. The South Huntington Public Library in Suffolk County, New York, is lending out iPod Shuffles preloaded with audiobooks. Right now the selection is pretty limited, but I think the news that libraries are beginning to digitally distribute audiobooks could point towards a burgeoning revolution in the audiobook business. Goodbye CDs 1 through 28, hello davincicode.mp3. (This is especially exciting news for me since this happens to be the childhood library of Mrs. Millions. I'll have to look for the iPods next time I stop by.)

- C. Max Magee @ 6:28 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Chicago reads a Western

Mayor Daley announced the latest "One Book, One City" selection for Chicago today. I don't know if anyone pays much attention to these recommendations now that the OBOC craze has faded a bit, but the book is worth reading. The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark is a somewhat forgotten classic from 1940, a spare but stirring tale of morality in the lawless Old West. I recommend it highly whether you live in Chicago or not.

- C. Max Magee @ 6:06 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

Classic Millions

2003: March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December ||| 2004: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December ||| 2005: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December ||| 2006: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December ||| 2007: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December ||| 2008: January | February | March | April | May |