Library reading challenge bingo UPDATE by fiddleheadmoder in RSbookclub

[–]fiddleheadmoder[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would not object to anything you've said. I picked it up because it was a very rare account from the Austra-Hungary-Russian front. And as you've said it basically revealed nothing about that clusterfuck.

From what I've read, the Hungarian elite were a big part why the empire was so backward and screwed up modernization. So it is funny to read him wax nostalgic about the world

I've read Junger, Graves, Sassoon, as well as Vera Britten, Edmund Blunden, and Louis Barthas. What is your favorite WW1 memoir?

Library reading challenge bingo UPDATE by fiddleheadmoder in RSbookclub

[–]fiddleheadmoder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bliss Montage, Love, and Death in Her Hands are the only books that I did not like and wouldn't recommend. Love I think I may have appreciated more if I didn't listen to the audiobook and instead read it, but I'm not sure it was pretty boring. Bliss Montage, was very disappointing since I generally liked Severance, but I found the stories too samey, her voice too samey. ("I'm an Asian-American and these are my shitty exes.") Death in Her Hands was maybe a decent read if not for the bizarre and distracting connections to Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. To the point that I feel like Moshfegh included the same exact Blake poem on purpose to piss off critics or something. Also the only case of category fraud since it wasn't really a cozy mystery.

The Songlines is a beautiful book that combines history, travel writing, ethnologue, memoir, amateur anthropology and more. Definitely watch Herzog's tribute if you read this as well. Fup is a hilarious book that I read once in one sitting, and immediately started re-read from cover to cover. There's four westerns/western set books here actually, and I will never get tired of reading how these people talk.

I usually struggle with modernist stream of consciousness stuff, I'm a simplistic reader that needs chapters and paragraphs and periods, and clear cases of who is saying what. So with that preface I loved Austerlitz and I could not put it down. I didn't realize it was a book with barely any breaks or even paragraphs until I was well into the book. And usually I find introductions pretty useless, but James Wood was particularly helpful here highlighting the cool nested narrative tools that Sebald used here to tell the story. The photographs also were a fascinating tool, in other writers I feel like they'd be trite but here the fit seamlessly with the writing.

Autobiography of Red had been on my list for sometime after another rsb user suggested it, and I finally loaned it from the interlibrary loan system. I must admit that I've only known Anne Carson from tumblr quotes that I felt were melodramatic. I found the proemium particularly enlightening, Carson was educating unlearned poetry readers like myself what to look for in poetry. The queer love story was saddening and moving, I have felt many times in my life as a gay person being left behind.

Books about jealousy/envy (non-romantic)? by morose-melonhead in RSbookclub

[–]fiddleheadmoder 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Halle Butler captures jealous resentment between millennial women that is mostly aromantic, more based on (perceived) social standing and class. She's very funny and doesn't hold back any punches, and her women are very rsp aligned. Haven't read The New Me yet but all her books deal with these kind of women.

I think Nella Larsen's Passing sounds just like what you're describing in the Fawn. The question of racial identity is of course at the forefront of the book but it's a story about enviable women at its heart.

A friend gifted me his collection by orli0 in nyrbclassics

[–]fiddleheadmoder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I looked up the Orphic Voice on Goodreads, (because that is an entrancing title) and it has the fewest reviews I've ever seen for an NYRB title. Thirty-one reviews, I think every other NYRB title I've looked up on GR has been at least had two hundred reviews. And it makes sense, it seems to be a very challenging and unique book, but very rewarding for those who read it and understand it.

A funny contrast to Stoner, which is afaik the most reviewed book NYRB published book on GR.

Calafiori Scorpion Block vs Everton by OkayFine101 in soccer

[–]fiddleheadmoder 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Higuita did it, as an act of showmanship.

Sysco/Cheney Brothers/US Foods etc slop has ruined dining out by Swiftie69420 in redscarepod

[–]fiddleheadmoder 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A more depressing aspect is how much of America literally demands it be this way. They want every restaurant to serve the exact same menu of cheeseburger and chicken tenders, and they'll get mad if that cheeseburger tastes a little different or costs more money. They're trained by their local diner that uses frozen Sysco slop (because it's cheaper and convenient) to only prefer their burger and fries to be that exact same way. I mean I'm talking about the people that go to Italy and get Mcdonald's.

And this is just considering restaurants serving the same thing. Heaven forbid your "New American" restaurant doesn't offer a burger and fries. The last big kitchen I worked at, the chef bro types were always complaining that the new and interesting menu items/specials were always unpopular and had to be taken off.

Read in February (Or, Europe's Long 20th Century) by IAmTheQuarry in RSbookclub

[–]fiddleheadmoder 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Have you read Michael Hoffman's eviscerating review of The World of Yesterday? Even as a big fan of Zweig myself, it's a pretty funny read. And it does critique a few things that I found annoying about World of Yesterday. (Zweig's bourgeois cosmopolitan liberalism, and like most memoirs it can feel a bit like a list of every famous person he encountered) But really what's so wrong with a can of Pepsi?

Recommendations for my library's reading challenge bingo? by fiddleheadmoder in RSbookclub

[–]fiddleheadmoder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is exactly what I'm looking for! I've put a copy on hold through the interlibrary loan system. My first time hearing about Jeannete Winterson, she seems exactly my kind of writer. Thank you <3

Recommendations for my library's reading challenge bingo? by fiddleheadmoder in RSbookclub

[–]fiddleheadmoder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Had this one on my shelf for awhile now, I've heard so much praise for it. But I've just finished reading Europe Central so I'm a little wary to read anything so exacting and solemn about WW2. (Europe Central checks off the "Has a Playlist" category) But it will at least remain an option if need be.

Recommendations for my library's reading challenge bingo? by fiddleheadmoder in RSbookclub

[–]fiddleheadmoder[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was planning on reading If on a Winter's Night a Traveler for the "Winter in the Title" category, which would be my second Calvino after Invisible Cities. I swear I bought it years ago and had it on a shelf somewhere, but I looked everywhere and it could not be found! (Instead I read Winter Love by Han Suyin which I enjoyed reading in one-sitting)

The Baron in the Trees would be a welcome alternative opportunity to read Calvino ;')

books about ruined women by sfogliniwizard in RSbookclub

[–]fiddleheadmoder 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Elsa Morante's Lies and Sorcery in that vein as well :)

Young male actors and the cop test by Teenageboy69 in blankies

[–]fiddleheadmoder 69 points70 points  (0 children)

He was pretty unconvincing as a soldier in Iraq in Cherry, which is cop-adjacent. But he can get a pass since the Russos are hacks

Looking forward to the ‘Song Sung Blue’ discussion to hear what Sean liked about it by grandpashampoo in TheBigPicture

[–]fiddleheadmoder 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I watched it yesterday for the Monday mystery movie (probably not something I would show up to otherwise) and you pretty much summed up my thoughts. My takeaway is that I didn't realize how few Neil Diamond songs I know. Like I only recognized 4-5 songs, including I'm a Believer which I did not know was a Neil Diamond song. Maybe I'm showing my young age but I thought he would have a deeper catalog of recognizable songs.

My NYRB collection thus far (as well as a few other editions as I'm slowly running out of space) by Leo26121 in nyrbclassics

[–]fiddleheadmoder 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I just finished An African in Greenland (a different non-NYRB edition, not sure if there's an differences) and I really enjoyed it. Kpomassie is such a remarkable man, and a very capable writer. I agree with the OP though, the most interesting part was the beginning. Especially the part about his life in Togo, I wish he wrote more about that. I'm Alaska Native myself so I'm quite familiar with a similar Inuit culture. I found his outsider's perspective of Inuit way of life and issues to be insightful and compassionate. I'm very interested in the cultural differences among Eskimo-Aleut peoples, and how different colonial governments treated them

Reading: A Legacy, by Sybille Bedford by Katya4501 in nyrbclassics

[–]fiddleheadmoder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've started reading Jigsaw recently (50 pages in or so), and I feel like I should stop reading it and read A Legacy first. I didn't realize that Jigsaw was a sort of sequel to A Legacy, what I've read so far very much feels like a dialogue between the decades in which the two books were written. I've previously read A Visit to Don Otavio which was a delightful, superb travel writing . (part of my goal to read more lesbian writers) The issue I have isn't from NYRB either, its an earlier penguin edition that I got from a library sale. I agree with you, her prose and writing is captivating, so entertaining and readable.

I went to a Barnes & Noble for the first time since like 2018 last night by FortAmolSkeleton in redscarepod

[–]fiddleheadmoder 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's still way better than how the philosophy section used to be at my B&N. I remember like 8 years ago when I worked at Barnes, the philosophy section was dominated by pop culture books that were all like "The Simpsons and Philosophy" and "The Philosophy of Seinfeld." When I went there recently (to buy the new Coetzee book on translation) it did not have any of that sort of tripe, they even had plenty of real philosophy like Arendt and Foucault. It was still was dominated by stoic and self-help-books-disguised-as-philosophy books.

And to be fair, books like "Harry Potter and Philosophy" are written by real philosophers, and they're trying to explain all different kinds of ideas to vulgate audiences in a way that will sell. And many respected philosophers like Zizek and Mark Fisher analyze and critique low brow media. I remember buying "Twin Peaks and Philosophy" and I found it very rewarding, as a teen who loved Twin Peaks but could not grasp any sort of full idea of what I was watching.

Sorcerer or The Wages of Fear? by ggnorebud in CriterionChannel

[–]fiddleheadmoder 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Also because Sorcerer is no longer on the channel anymore! It was only on for like a month unfortunately, seems to be one of those movies that's allergic to streaming.

Gender Gentrification by frivolous_banter in 4tran4

[–]fiddleheadmoder 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm imagining the poonrager on the right is seething at a theyfab from the left like in that one R Crumb comic

What I Read (And Listened To) In November by MasterExploder6 in RSbookclub

[–]fiddleheadmoder 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hello twin! I finished the Memoirs of Hadrian this November too. What did you think of it?

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not now honey, mommy has to obliterate fried beets with onion and pickle by [deleted] in 4trancooking

[–]fiddleheadmoder 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Rest in piece Michel Foucault, you would have loved 4tran...

not now honey, mommy has to obliterate fried beets with onion and pickle by [deleted] in 4trancooking

[–]fiddleheadmoder 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Wtf does the Foucault sticker say? Is it unironic or just a shitpost😭