What did you read last month?

[---]

figures that you'd dig knut hamsen! you indirectly recommended him to me... in one of the pair-up games you recommended me oslo august 31, which i of course loved, but recently i decided to watch trier's 2006 flick reprise as well (also amazing, but i'm guessing you've seen it). anyway, a character in reprise is based off of tor ulven, whom i now want to read badly, but first i'm exploring his influences a bit. that's led me to hamsen and par lagerkvist

[wigwam]

idk ulven but knausgard spazzed abt him in man in live too

[wba2]

March 2019

Ride the Dark Trail (Louis L’Amour / 1972 / USA / English / English) - 7/10
Jean le Bleu “Jean der Träumer” [translated by Käthe Rosenberg] (Jean Giono / 1932 / France / French / German) - 7/10
The Sundance Kids. How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood (James Mottram / 2006 / USA / English / English) - 6.5/10
Envoyez la petite musique “Französische Schriftsteller intim” [translated by Sabine Gruber, Cornelia Langendorf, Bernd Mattheus] (Madeleine Chapsal / 1984 / France / French / German) - 7/10
Elisabeth [translated by Marcus Seibert] (Gilbert Cordier / 1946 / France / French / German) - 7/10
Utsukushisa to kanashimi to “Schönheit und Trauer” [translated by Heinz Haase] (Yasunari Kawabata / 1964 / Japan / Japanese / German) - 6.5/10
Die 100 Besten Horror-Filme (Hans Schifferle / 1994 / Germany / German / German) - 8.5/10
Prinzessin Insomnia & der alptraumfarbene Nachtmahr (Walter Moers / 2017 / Germany / German / German) - 6.5/10
The Many Cinemas of Michael Curtiz (R. Barton Palmer, Murray Pomerance [editors] / 2018 / USA / English / English) - 6.5/10

[kanafani]

Nasser's Gamble: How Intervention in Yemen Caused the Six-Day War and the Decline of Egyptian Power (Ferris)
The Makioka Sisters (Tanizaki) ♥
Kon-Tiki (Heyerdahl)
Culture and Imperialism (Said)
Night at the Crossroads (Simenon)
A Rage in Harlem (Himes) ♥

[mesnalty]

The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form (Kenneth Clark)
Towards Another Summer (Janet Frame)
The Underground Railroad (Colson Whitehead)
The Perfect Nanny (Leila Slimani)
Finnegans Wake (James Joyce) (okay, "read" is a pretty loose word for what I did, but I tried)
Coromandel Sea Change (Rumer Godden)
Notes on the Cinematograph (Robert Bresson)
A Poetry Handbook (Mary Oliver)
Moonglow (Michael Chabon)

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

My biggest reading month in a while, and I expect that trend will continue, which I'm thrilled about!

Thinking the Twentieth Century (Tony Judt and Timothy Synder)
Ariel (Sylvia Plath)
Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture (Carl Schorske)
Axel's Castle: A Study in the Imaginative Literature of 1870-1930 (Edmund Wilson)
Heidegger and the Jews: The Black Notebooks (Donatella Di Cesare)
The Wandering Jews (Joseph Roth)
Christian Ethics: A Very Short Introduction (D. Stephen Long)
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Ludwig Wittgenstein)

[brian d]

cymbeline (william shakespeare) ****
under the net (iris murdoch) **
black mischief (evelyn waugh) [reread] ****
hangsaman (shirley jackson) *****
jacques the fatalist (denis diderot) ***
the old and the young (luigi pirandello) **
the punishments of hell (robert desnos) ****
a burnt-out case (graham greene) ****
sapphira and the slave girl (willa cather) **
clock without hands (carson muccullers) ****
the scarlet letter (nathaniel hawthorne) [reread] ****

[---]

aha! a weakish month!

APR (3)
the gate (natsumi soseki) - 8/10
replacement (tor ulven) - 7/10
the dwarf (par lagerkvist) - 9/10

don't worry guys, next month i'll murder it

[wba]

April 2019

Bud Spencer (Kai Glinka / 2017 / Germany / German / German) - 4.5/10
The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock’s Shower (Robert Graysmith / 2010 / USA / English / English) - 6.5/10
Kussun daikoku “Vom Versuch einen Glücksgott loszuerden” [translated by Katja Cassing, Jürgen Stalph] (Ko Machida / 1997 / Japan / Japanese / German) - 7.5/10
National Treasure. Nicolas Cage (Lindsay Gibb / 2015 / Canada / English / English) - 5.5/10
Shayo “Die sinkende Sonne” [translated by Oscar Benl] (Osamu Dazai / 1947 / Japan / Japanese / German) - 6/10
Westward the Tide (Louis L’Amour / 1950 / UK / English / English) - 7.5/10
Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-Vingts Jours “In 80 Tagen um die Welt” [translated by ??] (Jules Verne / 1873 / France / French / German) - 6.5/10
La pelle “Die Haut” [translated by Hellmut Ludwig] (Curzio Malaparte / 1949 / Italy / Italian / German) - 9.5/10
Quentin Tarantino. Shooting From the Hip (Wensley Clarkson / 1995 / UK / English / English) - 7/10

[kanafani]

If he Hollers Let Him Go (Himes) ♥
Howards End (Forster)
The Drowned and the Saved (Levi)
The Third Policeman (O'Brien)♥
Rabbit, Run (Updike)

[nrh]

too many cooks, rex stout
champagne for one, rex stout
the knight, gene wolfe
the wizard, gene wolfe
birthday, cesar aira
mythago wood, robert holdstock
summer will show, sylvia townsend warner

[mesnalty]

Neurophilosophy (Patricia Churchland)
Portrait of My Father in an English Landscape (George Szirtes)
The Romance of the Forest (Ann Radcliffe)
The Last Days of Mankind (Karl Kraus)
Angel (Elizabeth Taylor)
Two Pints (Roddy Doyle)
The Children's Book (A. S. Byatt)
Wartime (Paul Fussell)
Outline (Rachel Cusk)

[---]

even weaker than last month!

MAY (2)
on parole (akira yoshimura) - 9/10
stories and texts for nothing (samuel beckett) - 8/10

but who knows what june has in store!

[brian d]

short stories (luigi pirandello) ***
the taming of the shrew (william shakespeare) **
the confidence-man (herman melville) ****
the old curiosity shop (charles dickens) ***
the professor (charlotte brontë) *
each his own way (luigi pirandello) ***
visions of the daughers of albion/the book of urizen (william blake) ****
home to harlem (claude mckay) ***
felix holt, the radical (george eliot) ****
the marquis of brandomin (ramón del valle-inclán) ***

[rischka]

the red and the black. it was excellent.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796 (Christopher Duggan) —
Raoul Walsh (edited by Phil Hardy) —
Moving Places (Jonathan Rosenbaum) —
The Dewey Decimal System (Allan Fowler) —
Do You Know Dewey?: Exploring the Dewey Decimal System (Brian P. Cleary) —
Beowulf —

[brian d]

the red and the black. it was excellent.

[rischka]

i was so impressed with stendhal i've ordered the charterhouse of parma

[wba]

May 2019

Laura (Vera Caspary / 1943 / USA / English / English) - 6.5/10
The Horizontal Man (Helen Eustis / 1946 / USA / English / English) - 6.5/10
Kevin Costner (Norbert Stresau / 1992 / Germany / German / German) - 4.5/10
Ahabs Steuer (Nils Röller / 2005 / Germany / German / German) - 5/10

[wba]

June 2019

The Morphodite (M. A. Foster / 1981 / USA / English / English) - 7/10
Yukiguni “Schneeland” [translated by Oscar Benl] (Yasunari Kawabata / 1948 / Japan / Japanese / English) - 6.5/10
Une democrate, Mick Jagger, 1960 – 1969 “Der Tag, an dem Mick jagger starb” [translated by Brigitte Große] (Francois Begaudeau / 2005 / France / French / German) - 7/10
Lilli Palmer (Michael O. Huebner / 1986 / West Germany / German / German) - 5.5/10
Feux rouges “Schlusslichter” [translated by Stefanie Weiss] (Georges Simenon / 1953 / France / French / German) - 7/10

[kanafani]

The Seventh Million - The Israelis and the Holocaust (Segev)
The Quiet American (Greene)
The Remains of the Day (Ishiguro)
In Search of Walid Masoud (Jabra)
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (McCoy)
The Big Clock (Fearing)
Thieves Like Us (Anderson)
Desiring Arabs (Massad)
I Married a Dead Man (Woolrich)

[---]

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (McCoy)
The Big Clock (Fearing)
Thieves Like Us (Anderson)

Were these part of the same collection?

[---]

JUN (1)
ripley’s game (patricia highsmith) - 10/10

WEAK month but IMMENSE book! IMMENSE!!!

[kanafani]

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (McCoy)
The Big Clock (Fearing)
Thieves Like Us (Anderson)

Were these part of the same collection?

Yep, all part of the Library of America American Noir from the 30s and 40s volume. I initially only wanted to read The Big Clock, but ended up reading 3 others as well. The Big Clock is the strongest, I think. Weakest by far is I married a dead man. Both this and the American 50s noir volume are quite excellent.

[rischka]

i read the first two books of maqrol el gaviero and enjoyed them so much i'm saving the rest! nrh made me pick up the master of ballantrae and how did i not know this had pirates

[---]

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (McCoy)
The Big Clock (Fearing)
Thieves Like Us (Anderson)

Were these part of the same collection?

Yep, all part of the Library of America American Noir from the 30s and 40s volume. I initially only wanted to read The Big Clock, but ended up reading 3 others as well. The Big Clock is the strongest, I think. Weakest by far is I married a dead man. Both this and the American 50s noir volume are quite excellent.

I have got that from the library a couple times and read half of the books in it (Thieves Like Us, Postman Rings Twice, They Shoot Horses). I'll check out The Big Clock next!

[brian d]

i read norah lange’s 45 days and 30 sailors, which i loved, and adolfo bioy casares’s the invention of morel, which i didn’t like at all, and otherwise it was a bunch of federico garcía lorca and ramón del valle-inclán works.

[wba]

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (McCoy)
The Big Clock (Fearing)
Thieves Like Us (Anderson)

Were these part of the same collection?

Yep, all part of the Library of America American Noir from the 30s and 40s volume. I initially only wanted to read The Big Clock, but ended up reading 3 others as well. The Big Clock is the strongest, I think. Weakest by far is I married a dead man. Both this and the American 50s noir volume are quite excellent.

I have got that from the library a couple times and read half of the books in it (Thieves Like Us, Postman Rings Twice, They Shoot Horses). I'll check out The Big Clock next!

What a coincidence. I just bought that Library of America 40s Noir volume a couple of months ago, and have only read the first two novels so far, Laura (on which the famous film was based) and The Horizontal Man (by Helen Eustis , of which I don't know if there was a film made of it). Initially I just wanted to read Laura, but found the 4 novel volume to be cheaper than trying to purchse the single volume. Both were quite good, if nothing special. Laura was written from different perspectives of different characters, which made it somewhat more interesting (though depending on who was writing which part, it could be quite annoying - for example the killer was quite an asshole and his style got on my nerves pretty fast). The Horizontal Man was written by a more talented writer, but suffered a bit from being something of a "first novel". There was nothing particularly hard-boiled or noir from both, though they had quite an interesting female perspective (especially The Horizontal Man).

[DT.]

The Remains of the Day (Ishiguro)

How is it? Love the film, own the book but haven't read.

[kanafani]

The Remains of the Day (Ishiguro)

How is it? Love the film, own the book but haven't read.

The book was wonderful. Really masterful, perfectly controlled use of the unreliable narrator device. I remember close to nothing from the movie, which worked in my favor I guess. Now I want to read more from that Ishiguro fellow.