esrosedotblog

BOOK REPORT

Quite some time ago, I stopped blog posting about the books I was reading.

I am not sure why.

Laziness.

Since then, I have often thought about reviving the custom but never quite made it.

I think that today is the day. Just because I have ended a long dry period of new books and new authors.

I was driven to go back and re-read some beloved fiction. The entire works of Alan Furst, the wonderful writer of WWII underground novels. Ward Just's oeuvre.

But now, I am back on track. There have been many new and interesting books that have come my way.

Here are some of them. Some in process, others about to be cracked for the first time.

I usually have two streams going. The usual split. Ficton and non-fiction. The fiction I carry with me and slot into the day wherever I can. The non-fiction stays in one place. The better to concentrate.

Fiction.

Right now, I am reading Kurt Andersen's Turn of the Century about a small family in the hi-tech business riding the ups and downs of the dot.com revolution. One year. It is hilarious. One liners abound. People turn to look at me as I am chuckling along with the bike rpms.

I am reading all of Andersen and had completed his second book (yeh, out of order, unusually) HeyDay which also follows the one year in the life of formula only this one is 1848 and follows a group of young Americans, one Brit, who seek their fortune in the west. It is also funny but a bit bloodier fun. A whole lot was happening here in the mid 1900s.

I am also reading all the work of Ron Hansen. I began with Desperadoes, the story of the Dalton Gang. Nice work. Detail. Told from the viewpoint of the one (spoiler) survivor, a teenage brother who ends up making a fortune in the movies telling tall tales about his experience.

Hansen is a great writer and I am a bit struck by his talent but also a bit worried about two novels in the middle of his career that seem to dwell on catholic themes. I guess I can handle it.

On the non-fiction list, which is basically bathroom reading, I have just finished The Big House the award winning memoir by George Howe Colt. Great. I give it an award also. Full of family, history, Boston South Shore lore. Looking forward to reading his Brothers which is in the flight pattern. About his brothers (I never had one) and other famous brothers including the Marx.

Also in the queue for non-fiction is the serious takedown of Scientology Going Clear as well as John Homan's What is a Dog For?. Looming ahead is the large and heavy Far From the Tree Andrew Solomon's survey of unusual families, parents and children. Solomon was a gay son of straight parents. Many other more extraordinary parent child outcomes are explored.

The current reading is a once in a decade find. A book that has been around a long time (1920) that springs up in the middle of things crying to be read. The Journal of a Disappointed Man and a Last Diary by W.N.P. Barbellion the pen name of Bruce Frederick Cummings who died at an early age from multiple sclerosis. In the midst of a flourishing career as a zoologist (and many other things), the writer reflects on his life and its end but in a way that is exciting and life affirming and optimistic. Although he doesn't think so.

I know it sounds morbid and all but it is not.

I am reminded that writing about books is not reading about books which is what this is all about. So the more I write, the less I am reading. That is all, over and out. Gotta go read now.

Labels: books