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Thread: The Book Discussion Thread

  1. #6726
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    The Murder on the Links (Agatha Christie) - 3/5 (re-read)

    Second Poirot book's lighter tone from stuff like Hastings' romance and pompous Giraud character helps, as the solution hinges on convoluted layer upon convoluted layer even for the genre, such that for a Christie book it inspires less of satisfyingly snapping feeling in how various elements come together and more of "I guess, if these things happen to align together in order at that time." As said, the lighter tone somewhat alleviates such brain strain, and Christie is starting to nail the Poirot/Hastings banter and dynamics here.

    Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro) - 3.5/5

    My second Ishiguro novel after Never Let Me Go, which I read around 2008-2009 so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I remember as being so evocatively melancholic. Klara and the Sun has many thematic and stylistic overlaps with that book, but constricting a viewpoint entirely to the titular character's limited understanding of the human world. The tension between the humans' action and what Klara interprets of it and their world is fascinating and what drives the main narrative, but also what makes it doesn't measure up to that previous work I've read, as it feels less cohesive, and the humans' inter-drama are also at times less interesting and/or unconvincing. That said, I loved how the book doesn't explain the rules of this sci-fi world unless/until Klara knows or is informed about them directly, every of other characters' interaction with her is always compelling, and that coda is an exquisite heartbreaker.
    Midnight Run (1988) - 9
    The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
    The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
    Sisters (1973) - 6.5
    Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5

  2. #6727
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    American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin) - 4.5/5

    Makes my head spin at the unbelievably thorough details of a life placed within societal and political context at large weaved into a smooth biographical narrative. Sometimes it gets too overwhelming when the thoroughness means names and details are thrown at you non-stop when it switches to/introduces a new scenario, but compelling, staggering research achievement nonetheless, which makes for some real page-turner at several pivot points; I flew so fast through the vast conspiratorial set-ups gaining unstoppable steam against Oppenheimer at his security hearing, which on Strauss' part is so much uglier and more insidious than what is shown in the film (by adaptation and time necessities).

    The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro) - 4/5

    My first experience with this story is the 1993 film which I watched and loved almost two decades ago as a teen, even if my memory had faint so what had stood out in my memory before reading this was mostly the aching almost romance. As somewhat expected, the original as allowed by being written is able to make both Mr. Stevens' severely stiff upper lip and his tentative romance being even more subdued than the film, to the point of that he comes off a pathological shell at times. And there are some instances or passages where I feel that first-person narrating voice crosses over into too affected signifiers, a rendition of admittedly powerful concept more than a fully natural voice. But it remains overall effective all the same, especially in the very suppressed romance so that, when it is fleetingly but explicitly addressed by a few words among Miss Kenton's one paragraph of speech near the end [
    ] those words linger to pack quite a haunting gut punch.
    Midnight Run (1988) - 9
    The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
    The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
    Sisters (1973) - 6.5
    Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5

  3. #6728
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    The Man in the Brown Suit (Agatha Christie) may be one of Christie's more ludicrous plots, but the whirlwind, one-thing-after-another pace (in a good way) and a host of colorful characters make this a very fun read. 3.5/5


    Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (David Grann) - By adaptation necessity, Scorsese's film must be more of a focused snapshot compared to the book even at 3.5 hours, as Grann manages to lay bare how the corruption, exploitation, and murders operate in ways even much more systematic and widespread across power spectrum; truly grotesque. He manages the trick of making it a compelling read while maintaining a tone that never veers into sensationalistic itself. He caps it off with a final somber modern-day section, a writer's exploration of the present that feels like the seed for which Scorsese and Roth manages to cannily adapt it to the film's epilogue, different but working in similar way for both that medium and the director. 4/5
    Midnight Run (1988) - 9
    The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
    The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
    Sisters (1973) - 6.5
    Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5

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