Search found 1220 matches

by dp
22 May 2014 12:15
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: 2014 Book Challenge
Replies: 50
Views: 36749

Re: 2014 Book Challenge

1. Giraffe by J.M. Ledgard 298pg 2. New Perspectives on Yugoslavia: Key Issues and Controversies edited by Dejan Djokić 224pg 3. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon 152pg 4. Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson 224pg 5. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner 569pg 6. The Castle by Franz Kafka 32...
by dp
27 Mar 2014 18:23
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: 2014 Book Challenge
Replies: 50
Views: 36749

Re: 2014 Book Challenge

1. Giraffe by J.M. Ledgard 298pg 2. New Perspectives on Yugoslavia: Key Issues and Controversies edited by Dejan Djokić 224pg 3. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon 152pg 4. Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson 224pg 5. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner 569pg 6. The Castle by Franz Kafka 32...
by dp
10 Mar 2014 19:25
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: Modified Book Club
Replies: 34
Views: 23617

Re: Modified Book Club

Was I the only one who found The Castle uproariously funny? Examples: (After the councilman in his bed has described Brunswick as exceedingly stupid) "Brunswick had already thought up something else, he’s actually quite quick, that’s one of the forms his stupidity takes." and, The assistants prevent...
by dp
10 Mar 2014 19:17
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: 2014 Book Challenge
Replies: 50
Views: 36749

Re: 2014 Book Challenge

1. Giraffe by J.M. Ledgard 298pg 2. New Perspectives on Yugoslavia: Key Issues and Controversies edited by Dejan Djokić 224pg 3. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon 152pg 4. Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson 224pg 5. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner 569pg 6. The Castle by Franz Kafka 32...
by dp
03 Mar 2014 22:00
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: 2014 Book Challenge
Replies: 50
Views: 36749

Re: 2014 Book Challenge

4. Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson 224pg 5. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner 569pg The first is one of the foundational studies on nationalism, or something. I read a essay-length version for a class and enjoyed it, so decided to read the whole thing. Angle of Repose seemed like a modifi...
by dp
04 Feb 2014 13:59
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: Modified Book Club
Replies: 34
Views: 23617

Re: Modified Book Club

I read The Crying of Lot 49 4 or so years ago and at the time I remember thinking it was the strangest books I'd ever read. I also found I couldn't keep track of anything that was going on, and on a sentence by sentence level I was pretty confused let alone following the broader story. This time aro...
by dp
28 Jan 2014 18:04
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: 2014 Book Challenge
Replies: 50
Views: 36749

Re: 2014 Book Challenge

1. Giraffe by J.M. Ledgard 298pg
2. New Perspectives on Yugoslavia: Key Issues and Controversies edited by Dejan Djokić 224pg
3. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon 152pg

Will post Lot 49 thoughts in book club thread soon.
by dp
16 Jan 2014 16:08
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: 2014 Book Challenge
Replies: 50
Views: 36749

Re: 2014 Book Challenge

1. Giraffe by J.M. Ledgard 298pg 2. New Perspectives on Yugoslavia: Key Issues and Controversies edited by Dejan Djokić 224pg Will be a senior in college next year and am casting about for a research project topic. Probably it'll be focused on something to do with the former Yugoslavia, so read this...
by dp
12 Jan 2014 10:49
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: 2014 Book Challenge
Replies: 50
Views: 36749

Re: 2014 Book Challenge

1. Giraffe by J.M. Ledgard 298pg A novel about a large herd of giraffes that were captured and shipped to Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and then suddenly a bunch of hazmatted soldiers swooped in a slaughtered them all. Based on a true story. Strange story strangely written. Not particularly great, but...
by dp
08 Jan 2014 19:59
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: The 2013 Book Challenge
Replies: 187
Views: 73583

Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

Danny's Top Books Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner I persuaded my roommate to read this book and for the next two months just about every conversation we had slowly turned into a conversation about this book. I read it twice this year and had read it once before. Highly highly recommended. M...
by dp
29 Dec 2013 09:35
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: The 2013 Book Challenge
Replies: 187
Views: 73583

Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

63. Baudolino by Umberto Eco 522pg 64. Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence by Alize Marcus 351pg I'll withhold my comments on Baudolino for now since it's a book club book next year. I was almost done with it by it was mentioned, otherwise, I woulda held off. The second ...
by dp
25 Dec 2013 16:37
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: Modified Book Club
Replies: 34
Views: 23617

Re: Modified Book Club

I was actually considering Don Quixote as one of my books before Zac posted his list, but decided against it because I thought it might be too long, but I'm actually pretty pleased to see someone else chose it. Maybe make Don Quixote a little later in the year and have it following a month with a re...
by dp
22 Dec 2013 13:39
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: Modified Book Club
Replies: 34
Views: 23617

Re: Modified Book Club

The Castle by Franz Kafka

Will come up with others later.
by dp
14 Dec 2013 11:43
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: The 2013 Book Challenge
Replies: 187
Views: 73583

Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

61. Mating by Norman Rush 480pg 62. Ghost Wars by Steve Coll 695pg Mating I read earlier this year and liked very much. I gave a copy of if to a good friend of mine for his birthday and I decided to read it again so we could talk about it as he read it. Ghost Wars is written by a former writer for t...
by dp
02 Dec 2013 19:35
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: The 2013 Book Challenge
Replies: 187
Views: 73583

Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

60. Kosovo: War and Revenge by Tim Judah 348pg This book covered the war and the lead-up to the war. To its detriment, it was written in 2000 and I don't think the author had enough perspective on the whole thing to write the type of complete history he was trying to. On top of this, the writing was...
by dp
29 Nov 2013 09:31
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: The 2013 Book Challenge
Replies: 187
Views: 73583

Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

59. The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End by Peter Galbraith 260pg I'm not going to say too much because I'm about to read his other book about Iraq which was published recently. This book was published in 2006 and I'll wait until I have a fuller picture of the whole w...
by dp
26 Nov 2013 15:45
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: The 2013 Book Challenge
Replies: 187
Views: 73583

Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

I know little to nothing about Sudan, unfortunately. This book was written in 2002 (or 2003? I can't remember and don't feel like googling) and was before US involvement in Sudan. Certainly America does more than most, sadly they just do it either too late or in an entirely inept manner. I had not r...
by dp
24 Nov 2013 20:33
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: Modified Book Club
Replies: 34
Views: 23617

Re: Modified Book Club

I'm in.
by dp
17 Nov 2013 21:20
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: The 2013 Book Challenge
Replies: 187
Views: 73583

Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

57. A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power 610pg A fantastic book about America's response to genocide through the 20th century. Samantha Power, currently the US Ambassador to the UN, writes about the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge, the Kurdish Geno...
by dp
14 Nov 2013 11:16
Forum: Arts & Leisure
Topic: The 2013 Book Challenge
Replies: 187
Views: 73583

Re: The 2013 Book Challenge

47. The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them by Elif Batuman 296pg 48. Speedboat by Renata Adler 178pg 49. Sarajevo Marlboro by Miljenko Jergović 154pg 50. Nowhere Man by Aleksandar Hemon 242pg 51. Necessary Errors by Caleb Crain 472pg 52. The Chairs Are Where the Pe...