What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky was fantastic as well. One of the saddest books I've ever read, but I still sped through it. The first few stories were heartbreaking, especially "Windfalls". Really enjoyed the topics they covered, and thought they were expertly told.

“Who Will Greet You at Home” was excellent as well. I enjoy fantasy/SF a ton, and wasn't expecting any to be in this book after the first few stories, so this was a pleasant surprise. I liked the concept of it, which seemed to put the story in a fable-like setting. The one figure reminded me of Baba Yaga for example. It was amazing how accurate a depiction of wealth inequality it ended up being considering how outlandish the concept was.


“What is a Volcano?” was by far my favorite in this collection. I am a huge sucker for fables, origin stories, and myths. After the previous stories I was not expecting to read a myth about the goddess of rivers and the god of ants. It was expertly told and I loved it.


Overall it was another great collection of stories, thanks again for the recommendations.

What books are you burning?

God etc. Pascal was more in the God camp than Montaigne.

Uh, let's say certainty instead.

If I can only read one, which Alice Munro short story collection should I read? If relevant, the only short stories I’ve read voluntarily are Sherlock Holmes. For some reason the short form has never appealed to me, but I know I’m missing out.

I need some help in this area too. Or perhaps just one story to read that is representative.

Her Selected Stories would be the obvious answer. Note, though, that the stories in that book are arranged chronologically and, although she was always a very strong writer, her stories became richer and more complex over the years. So if you want to see her at her peak you might want to jump ahead, into the later work, perhaps choosing from "The Turkey Season," "The Moons of Jupiter" (one of my favourites), "The Progress of Love" (which is the one I chose to teach year after year and never got tired of), "Lichen," "Miles City, Montana," or "White Dump."

Although she's a very accessible writer, many of these stories really open up on rereading.

In any case, it's almost impossible to go wrong if you've not read her before, and all the early work in that collection is also well-worth your time. (I find that "Dance of the Happy Shades," "Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You" (another that I think is especially interesting), "Material," and "Royal Beatings" left particularly strong impressions on me.

It just occurred to me that if you like Holmes you might want to begin by reading "Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You"--which I think has an (unrevealed) solution to the death in the story.

Munro played with the mystery story several times over her career.

Glad you liked it. There's a another short story collection I would now add to that somewhat idiosyncratic list I posted earlier -- Jim Shepard's You Think That's Bad. After reading it, I immediately sent the following message to a friend with whom I share recommendations:

Thanks for the recs!

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Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick. Reminded me of Annie Ernaux.

Perhaps I like the more perverse, but Jesus' Son by Dennis Johnson and Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill are a couple of my favorite short story collections. (Gaitskill writes beautifully.)

And I'm not knocking Alice Monroe who is perhaps the greatest prose stylist working today.

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I would certainly support your additions to the list.

This emboldens me to recommend Yoko Ogawa's The Diving Pool. Also The Ten Loves of Nishino by Kawakami Hiromi.

A couple random thoughts on Tara Westover's excellent memoir Educated:

• Is intelligence a result of nature or nurture? Tara never goes to school and has little informal education. She certainly does not grow up in an environment that values learning. The only worthwhile books as far as her father is concerned are the Bible and Book of Mormon. So how does she acquire the intelligence and drive to take her to Cambridge and Harvard?
  
• Score one for standardised, multiple choice testing. Tara's story would be extremely difficult to replicate in the UK because the key exams for university entry are written tests. Tara had no idea how to write an essay and struggled with maths. An interview is also crucial to many universities' application process. It's hard to imagine Tara getting into a decent UK university at undergraduate level. That said, Jason Arday, who couldn't read or write until 18, recently became Cambridge's youngest tenured professor. But he at least went to school.

I just powered this webcomic (no idea if that's the right term) about a kid who went Elan, a school for troubled teens.

https://elan.school/


It is an incredible difficult read because of how awful the kids are treated. It is easily the darkest thing I've ever read, but it's somehow an inspiring read as well, and I did enjoy it. I'm glad that this person survived, didn't kill himself afterwards, and found his voice. The comic gets far better as it goes on and the author perfects his style, but the quality was good enough at the beginning to get me hooked.

Excellent thanks a lot. After reading the thing from my previous post I think I'll need to take some off before jumping into this one, but I've added it to my list and will definitely get to it eventually. Also not sure if you saw, but I read Office of Historical Corrections earlier too, thought it was equally as good as When a Man Falls From the Sky. Thanks for the excellent recs!

The Life and Zen Haiku Poetry of Santoka Taneda

About a Japanese guy in the 1930s who abandoned his family and walked around getting drunk and composing haiku. A beautiful book but I didn't care for the translations of the haiku. Nobody will want to read this. A++

I’ve been (mostly re-) reading Le Carre’s Smiley books in order - the Karla trilogy (Tinker Tailor…, Honourable Schoolboy, Smiley’s People) is just an exceptional body of work. What a titanic literary achievement. It’s up there with the Caro LBJ books for me as the best multi-book series I have ever read. And the jury remains out whether Caro will live long enough to finish.

Along those lines I highly enjoyed the recent documentary Turn Every Page about the Caro / Robert Gottleib relationship. I wasn’t previously aware of Gottleib’s influence and reach as an editor and publisher, and I could watch them talk about the editing process of Caro’s books for hours.

The Mirror and the Light was great, and an excellent conclusion to Wolf Hall. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy it as much as the first two, for the same reasons I enjoyed the first two so much: the depth of the characters. I wish I had waited for the series to conclude before starting it, because the several years I waited for the third installment to come out, combined with the years I waited to read it, resulted in my forgetting many of the characters. Had I been able to read all 3 at once I am convinced I would have enjoyed this book even more. The author really creates some memorable characters and it's important to remember each one to truly enjoy the work she put into this.

I highly recommend the audiobook. The person who played Cromwell in the stage adaptation narrates and he does an amazing job. I especially enjoyed his version of Norfolk.

I loved the first two, but couldn't finish the third. I guess I lost momentum and interest.

Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life by Howard Sounes, it appears to be a straightforward bio of Bukowski with very little editorializing until after his death. I'd read a lot of Bukowski including criticism but never a biography. It seemed very thorough, well written, and easy to read.

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton, who wrote Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Less timey-wimey body-jumpy, more Holmes and Watson-like duo battling an evil spirit on a ship. Everyone on board has their own agenda. Lots of intrigue, shady characters and subplots.

It's very cleverly plotted and great fun. The characters are even a bit more developed that in Seven Deaths. I'm looking forward to Turton's next book.

"If this is a man" and "The periodic table" by Primo Levi are great books, particularly if you have a scientific/engineering background.

I hit a part that I would not have powered through if I was reading it. I'm not too sure why, but it was incredibly slow to me. With the audio book I was able to kind of zone out and get the pertinent info. I thought the writing was great throughout so I'm not really sure why I felt this way, but what can you do?

Ultimately I think the first two books had the more interesting plot, not much that can be done about that.



Stardust was my first Neil Gaiman book, and it was really fun and easy to read. This is not his normal writing style, so not really sure what to expect of the rest of his stuff, but excited to read some more of his works. I am a huge fan of Fey Wild settings, and Faerie seemed very similar to that. The characters were excellent and the story really brought them together perfectly. It's a great adventure novel which reminded me of the Princess Bride a lot. Highly recommend for anyone looking for some easy reading.