Just reread Leguin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" and Ozick's "The Shawl" for a class I'm teaching for senior citizens. Once again, both these stories knock me out.

I've never had a story really "knock me out" but the Book of Revelation came close.

It may be the first recorded acid trip. I always thought it interesting that they tacked it on the end of the bible.

I realize there was a mention on NVG but Al Alvarez’s passing deserves a more detailed appreciation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...e90_story.html

You could argue that Ezekiel beat John of Patmos to being the first to describe a trip. Or maybe his was an early record of schizophrenia?

I've read four of Lethem's books now and Motherless Brooklyn is my favourite. Though I was quite taken with Fortress of Solitude, as well.

I'd suggest following up with his Chronic City. I found myself a bit impatient while I was reading it, but fascinated by the time I got to the end. And it has stuck with me more than most contemporary fiction does.

ok, I definitely will then, sounds good.

I’m really enjoying Motherless Brooklyn as well.

will check it out as well as the motherless author

thanks guys, loving this thread

Just finished Chronic City, I liked it quite a bit despite wanting to quit it a few times in there. Lethem's sensibility is one I can readily relate to, which is rare for me with current novelists. I feel the same way about Jonathan Franzen. Thanks, RussellinToronto!

kioshk, i saw you hated freakonomics in another thread and didn't want to derail but I recall reading it in college and found it light and entertaining reading and didn't really look much further into it - I also really enjoy the podcast

if you don't mind, could you elaborate why you dislike him so much?

also, why the hate on gladwell? I personally agree that he's overrated and not a very good at the prose side of things but he typically chooses very interesting topics

Andrew Ferguson did a great takedown of Gladwell that I completely agreed with, I forget where. Lemme find it. Ferguson is very good btw. Smart, funny, great with words.

Found it, boom: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...at-all/597697/

thanks for the response, I feel the same, his subject is very interesting but i hate the way he has something that could have filled a long form essay but decided to stretch it out into something a book can handle

Harari and Sapiens is the most egregious example, first opening chapters are great but nobody should ever waste time to read that beyond page 50 or so

this is why i love historical non-fiction because they can just move forward in detail, parallel storylines or giving more pre and post analysis to fill it out to book length

this is actually what i really love about robert greene, i think most of his lessons and teachings are kind of nonsense and brute forced but I love reading him nonetheless because it's basically a collection of historical and entertaining anecdotes - despite that when one of the anecdotes is on something i'm intimately familar with and I see points of views that are over simplified even to the point where I disagree with the conclusion, but then again, I can't really expect too much when it's just a blurb to convey a message rather than a deep dive into the story itself

also just found robert greene was on the board of american apparel because the founder loved reading his books and greene was one of the guys to remove him and then the company tanked - would love him to write about that episode

I think he's quite a talented narrator/storyteller (although it gets very samey after a while), the issue really is that his arguments are ultimately overly simplified, often to the extent of being really misleading. So his stuff is entertaining but I usually wouldnt trust a word of the central argument/explanation.

I'm reading an excellent book that arrived yesterday by Mule.

It was nice meeting you but I was a bit put off by the plebeian ornamental donkey pulling a flower cart in your front yard

Though I've been lurking/commenting, I haven't been posting about my own reading for a while (though I've read a bunch). Here's something.

I decided to catch up on DeLillo by reading his short story collection, The Angel Esmeralda, and his post-9/11 short novel, Falling Man. The first is strong, shows how skillful his writing can be, and is rewarding. At the same time the book lacks the overall impact of his best novels.

Falling Man is uneven. It opens strongly and has some great passages, but it doesn't seem to cohere. (Though maybe, as I suspect with The Names, it would reveal more depth and complexity with rereading and study.) But what I wanted to talk about here, since we are, after all, a poker forum, is that the novel (to my surprise) had a recurrent poker theme.
I especially liked this:

Whoever Fights Monsters, by Robert Ressler- Enjoyed this quite a bit; this is a book by one of the FBI investigators that tracked serial killers and I believe he is special agent Tench from Mind Hunters. Ressler goes a bit into the environment and nature vs. nurture factors that create serial killers. He goes into many of the prominent cases that we have all heard about and some of the motivations behind the serial killers.

Nice change of pace book and I would be interested in checking out Mind Hunters by John Douglas sometime.

RE: battlefield earth

you guys ever get into L Ron?

L Ron is the worst writer. Just so bad.

Decided to re-read John Crowley's AEgypt 4-book series, I loved it 2+ decades ago the first time I read it.

The first book has been re-named The Solitudes. Harold Bloom put the first 2 books on his Canon list. I also very much enjoyed the 3rd one.

Little, Big by him is also very highly regarded but I didn't enjoy it quite as much.

Agreed, his discussion of the blind auditions in music have turned out to be completely wrong.

I just started the second book in Alan Furst’s Night Soldiers spy books- WW2, mostly centered around eastern European Russian agents. First book was really good, looking forward to reading more.

I’ve read four or five Furst novels. Enjoyed the foregrounding. Warsaw...Paris (particularly Paris) where ever...you never doubt...and the murkyness of LeCarre

Love Furst, read almost all of them.

http://scifilists.sffjazz.com/lists_books_rank1.html we we're discussing this in another thread and thought i'd share it here, good combo of deeply intellectual, young adult and cheesy space opera