Night Table Reading

dong20

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ClaireTalon said:
Martin Cruz Smith, I've read his Gorky Park. He's great, definitely one of the most skilled contemporary belletristic novelists..

Completely agree, I've read all his Renko books though I thought Wolves eat Dogs while excellent was a bit fatalistic and Red Square the best or maybe I'm just a romantic at heart. Polar star was a study in denial and to me, Havana bay his most melancholy.

I've a couple of his others but not read them.....yet.
 

ClaireTalon

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dong20 said:
Completely agree, I've read all his Renko books though I thought Wolves eat Dogs while excellent was a bit fatalistic and Red Square the best or maybe I'm just a romantic at heart. Polar star was a study in denial and to me, Havana bay his most melancholy.

I've a couple of his others but not read them.....yet.

Yes, Renko is a great protagonist. Maybe a good Anti-hero, he is. I didn't find him very sympathic at first, but maybe that was common political sense. Gorky Park is way old, and when I read the book, we just had Reagans Empire of the Evil, 80s, cold war and so. Cruz Smith did some pioneer work with a hero from that part of the world, and very good so.
 

dong20

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ClaireTalon said:
Yes, Renko is a great protagonist. Maybe a good Anti-hero, he is. I didn't find him very sympathic at first, but maybe that was common political sense. Gorky Park is way old, and when I read the book, we just had Reagans Empire of the Evil, 80s, cold war and so. Cruz Smith did some pioneer work with a hero from that part of the world, and very good so.

Indeed, he is a interesting character, we have some traits in common, maybe that's why I like the books. I suspect Cruz could make Mardi Gras seem depressing, he had an amazing ability to portray a tangible sense of the grey, murky hopelessness and fear of early '80s Russia. Polar star details the real life underlying cynicism and corruption of the Gorbachev era while Red square Red square ends with the abortive Coup and the seeds of collapse of the Soviet Union.

I'm looking for my Irina Asanova...I thought I'd found her once but it's looking I may have been wrong...maybe it's time to go Arctic fishing. :rolleyes:
 

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Tales of Ordinary Madness - Charles Bukowski ( re-read)
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote (have been meaning to for some time)
Discovering Machu Picchu - (Apparently authorless but still fascinating)
 

koval

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Beowulf - (author unknown) Modern English version as I gave up trying to read it in old Saxon :banghead2:

Sarek - (A.C. Crispin) Hey I'm a scifi nut:biggrin1:

The Fall of the House of Usher - (Edgar Allan Poe)
 

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The Fall of the House of Usher - (Edgar Allan Poe)[/quote]

Ooooh. nice choice. I forgot about old Edgar.
 

dong20

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One of, if not the most moving books I ever read is "River of Time" by Jon Swain.

His experiences in and emotional attachment to Indochina really resonate with me, though mine hardly compare in scope they're just as real to me.
 

GoneA

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ClaireTalon said:
Don't tell me you know Cryptonomicon. Hardly anyone knows this book, which is maybe the best thing Stephenson has ever written. The rest of his work is, sorry, c-r-a-p.

I agree 100%, Cryptonomicon was at the "very good" level for me. Everything thing else is very, very crappy.

Although, if someone held a gun to my head and said I had to pick another good book of his, I'd go with Quicksilver.

What about you?
 

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GoneA said:
I agree 100%, Cryptonomicon was at the "very good" level for me. Everything thing else is very, very crappy.

Although, if someone held a gun to my head and said I had to pick another good book of his, I'd go with Quicksilver.

What about you?

I'd wrestle for his gun, put his gun to HIS head and force him to admit Stephenson wrote nothing but crap instead. Diamond Age, Interface, Snow Crash, they're all pretty trashy. I don't like science fiction novels, Cryptonomicon has just the right amount of SF in it while remaining realistic. Just in some passages, it really got on my nerves, but the treatise on the greek gods and their provenience from resonators in the white noise was one of the most intersting and informative things I've ever read in a novel.

Quicksilver might be better, yet I haven't read it. It's linking to the past, preceding Cryptonomicon, as it depicts the roots of the Waterhouse family, right?
 

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Wow.. it's weird but recently I've been rereading some of the New Englander's work from the 19th century since most of it was first "visited" back in school.

Nightstand at the moment:

The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne