The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard
I first saw this ‘book’ at Moes books in Berkeley. It is actually a glossy style magazine reprinted in a series called REsearch which describes itself as ‘fascinated with society’s fringe elements’ and was published in 1990. Originally published in the UK in 1970, It…
The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
I came to this book via a review of Hazzard’s work in the New York Review of Books calling this her masterpiece. It starts slowly, revolving around two sisters, Grace and Caro Bell who emigrate to England from Australia in the fifties. We are introduced…
Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
Pynchon decides to take on Humboldt county and shakes it up in his wild eighties ride with stoners and mini-movie moguls, pop culture loving tow truck operators and renegade film makers. There are rich kids and Japanese businessmen but not of the buttoned up variety. Sexy…
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
‘I first read “Memento Mori” in high school. I think I reread it sometime in my late twenties and I just finished my third time around at age 50.’ Now I am sixty three finishing my fourth reading of this touchstone book. Now I am…
All the Sinners bleed by S.A. Cosby
Read this book as part of our book group. It was on the list of best thrillers by a New York Times reviewer. The trope of the vicious serial killer is not enjoyable for me. I don’t mind violence or even expressions of evil but…
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
I read this book when I was young, in my early twenties and I found the book bewildering. I had no frame of reference for the character’s struggle. By that time I had read about the struggles of black people but from the perspective and…
Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah
I have two reasons for reading this novel. First, is that the author recently won a Nobel prize and I had never heard of him. Second, I want to read more fiction by non-Americans and even non-Europeans. In ‘Gravel Heart’ while significant events occur in…
Moliere, The Complete Richard Wilbur Translations by Richard Wilbur
One of the first poetry collections I read was by Wilbur and the elegance and freshness of his poetry astonished me. A couple years later I read a piece in the New York Review of Books about this Library of America collection of Moliere plays…
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The original title of this book was horrible and I saw a cover that makes things even more racist. And it doesn’t seem necessary to the book but then gratuitous and casual racism was the order of the day back in 1939 when this novel…
Hello America by J.G. Ballard
Some time ago I went to a favorite used bookstore and there were many of Ballard’s books being sold in new editions and I bought several of the ones I hadn’t read. ‘Hello America’ is one of them. I am more a fan of the…
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