45 replies to this topic

[J.A.A. Purves]

NBooth, on 07 January 2013 - 07:35 PM, said:

The Millions posts a list of anticipated books for 2013. I've just skimmed the list, but a couple caught my eye:

Fantastic. The Millions continues to be one of the best sources around for news on authors who can actually write.

[NBooth]

J.A.A. Purves, on 09 January 2013 - 02:20 PM, said:

NBooth, on 07 January 2013 - 07:35 PM, said:

The Millions posts a list of anticipated books for 2013. I've just skimmed the list, but a couple caught my eye:

Fantastic. The Millions continues to be one of the best sources around for news on authors who can actually write.

Agreed. I generally keep up with 'The Millions' pretty closely--even if I don't read the books they recommend, it's good to know what's in the air.

[NBooth]

23-May: Professor Borges: A Course on English Literature by Jorge Luis Borges

[NBooth]

August: Red or Dead by David Peace.

[J.A.A. Purves]

Updated:

3/1 - Better Food for a Better World - by Erin McGraw
3/5 - In Partial Disgrace - by Charles Newman
3/12 - A Country of Marriage: Poems - by Wendell Berry - republishing
3/12 - Middle C - by William H. Gass
3/19 - The Tragedy of Mr. Morn - by Vladimir Nabakov - translation
3/19 - Democracy in Retreat - by Joshua Kurlantzick
3/19 - Speedboat - by Renata Adler - republishing
3/21 - The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards: A Novel - by Kristopher Jansma
4/2 - My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer - by Christian Wiman
4/2 - All That Is - by James Salter
4/9 - Cairo: Memoir of a City Transformed - by Ahdaf Soueif
4/9 - The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and War at the Ends of the Earth - by Mark Mazzetti
4/16 - The Return of a King: Shah Shuja and the First Battle for Afghanistan - by William Dalrymple
4/18 - Beyond War: Reimagining American Influence in a New Middle East - by David Rohde
4/18 - The Dark Road - by Ma Jian - translation
5/21 - And the Mountains Echoed - by Khaled Hosseini
5/21 - The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America - by George Packer
5/23 - The Fall of Arthur - by J.R.R. Tolkien
5/26 - Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era - by Joseph S. Nye
6/4 - The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths - by John Gray
6/4 - For a Song and a Hundred Songs: A Poet's Journey Through a Chinese Prison - by Liao Yiwu
6/13 - Seiobo There Below - by László Krasznahorkai
6/11 - Cannonball - by Joseph McElroy
6/18 - Lexicon - by Max Barry
7/16 - Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: A Novel - by David Rakoff
8/27 - Claire of the Sea Light - by Edwidge Danticat
9/1 - Dealing with China: An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower - by Henry M. Paulson

No Release Dates Yet:

Bleeding Edge - by Thomas Pynchon
Collected Poems 1952-2012 - by Geoffrey Hill
Dissident Gardens - by Jonathan Lethem
Pyramid Scheme: Making Art and Being Broke in America - by David Griffith

[Christian]

J.A.A. Purves, on 11 March 2013 - 09:36 AM, said:

3/12 - Middle C - by William H. Gass

I haven't read this book and don't know anything about the author, so I won't launch a dedicated thread. But I wanted to point to Michael Dirda's rave review in today's paper, and highlight a couple of God-related passages that caught my eye:

The book’s protagonist, Joseph Skizzen, is the son of an Austrian couple who, in the 1930s, pretend to be Jews so they can escape to a new life in England. ...

Whether he helps out in a music store, attends a Christian community college, works in a library or lands a job as a teacher, Joseph lives a hidden life. He has no friends, no lovers, few possessions. ...

Annoyed at how people always “excuse” God, Gass here writes, “A tornado might trash a trailer park and the poor wretches who survived would thank him for sparing them, as well as preserving a children’s plate and one photo of the family grinning at the Falls as if they’d pushed the water over by themselves.” ...

Early in the novel there is a throwaway reference to the Laodiceans, who, St. Paul tells us, were lukewarm in their religious convictions, “neither hot nor cold.” “Nobody,” Joseph says, “has worked harder to get nowhere than I have.”

I don't know if Gass himself has religious or antireligious views, but the book sounds like an interesting character study. Dirda is amazed at Gass' ability with words.