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Thread: Top Books First Read in 2019

  1. #1
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    Top Books First Read in 2019

    Picking up right where was left off:

    Fiction

    1. The Gods Themselves (partial) (Isaac Asimov, 1972)
    2. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (partial) (Stephen King, 2015)

    Non-Fiction

    Theater

    1. Waiting for Godot (partial) (Samuel Becket, 1953)

    Comic Books

    1. The Age of Selfishness: Ayn Rand, Morality, and the Financial Crisis (partial) (Darryl Cunningham, 2014)

  2. #2
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    Not many readers this year!

    Finished most of the leftovers from last year, digging into Bloch's original classic. Already interesting in how it differs from the movie, though not necessarily in bad ways. There's something cool about reading this story and seeing Norman Bates on the opening page and learning about his relationship with his mother through a striking and emotional argument. The Gods Themselves had a solid opening, a fantastically weird middle, and a somewhat limp final act. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams is a lesser King collection, too ruminative and wandering most of the time to create the same whiskey-shot pleasure of collections like Skeleton Crew and Nightmares and Dreamscapes.

    Fiction

    1. The Gods Themselves (Isaac Asimov, 1972)
    2. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (Stephen King, 2015)
    3. Psycho (partial) (Robert Bloch, 1959)

    Non-Fiction

    Theater

    1. Waiting for Godot (partial) (Samuel Becket, 1953)

    Comic Books

    1. The Age of Selfishness: Ayn Rand, Morality, and the Financial Crisis (Darryl Cunningham, 2014)

  3. #3
    Read Tad Williams' :
    The Witchwood Crown (Last King of Osten Ard, 1)
    Empire of Grass: Book Two of The Last King of Osten Ard
    and
    Anthony Ryan's
    The Waking Fire: Book One of Draconis Memoria
    The Legion of Flame: Book Two of the Draconis Memoria

  4. #4
    Plays:
    • Agamemnon (Aeschylus, 458 BC)
    • Hippolytus (Euripides, 428 BC)
    • Mother Courage and Her Children: A Chronicle of the Thirty Years' War (Bertolt Brecht, 1941)
    Last edited by baby doll; 02-06-2019 at 03:00 PM.
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  5. #5
    Super Moderator dreamdead's Avatar
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    Novels:
    Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country
    Ross Thomas’s Briarpatch
    Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North
    Leila Slimani’s The Perfect Nanny
    Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo
    Monique Truong’s Bitter in the Mouth
    Yan Lianke’s The Years, Months, Days: Two Novellas
    Catherine Lacey’s Certain Americans States: Stories

    Poetry:
    Philip Metres’s Sand Opera
    Tracy K. Smith’s Wade in the Water
    Eunsong Kim’s Gospel of Regicide
    J. Michael Martinez’s Museum of the Americas

    Drama:
    Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal
    Suzan-Lori Parks’s Overdog/Underdog
    John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger
    Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics
    The Boat People - 9
    The Power of the Dog - 7.5
    The King of Pigs - 7

  6. #6
    Super Moderator dreamdead's Avatar
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    After a slew of poetry, an update:

    Novels:
    Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country
    Ross Thomas’s Briarpatch
    Park Wan-suh’s The Naked Tree
    Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North
    Ling Ma’s Severance
    Leila Slimani’s The Perfect Nanny
    Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo
    Monique Truong’s Bitter in the Mouth
    Yan Lianke’s The Years, Months, Days: Two Novellas
    Catherine Lacey’s Certain Americans States: Stories

    Poetry:
    Sylvia Plath’s Ariel
    Diane Seuss’s Four-Legged Girl
    Tracy K. Smith’s Life on Mars
    Philip Metres’s Sand Opera
    Tracy K. Smith’s Wade in the Water
    Eunsong Kim’s Gospel of Regicide
    J. Michael Martinez’s Museum of the Americas

    Drama:
    Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal
    Suzan-Lori Parks’s Topdog/Underdog
    John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger
    Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics
    The Boat People - 9
    The Power of the Dog - 7.5
    The King of Pigs - 7

  7. #7
    Novels:
    • Herzog (Saul Bellow, 1964)

    Plays:
    • Agamemnon (Aeschylus, 458 BC)
    • Hippolytus (Euripides, 428 BC)
    • The Tragedy of Coriolanus (William Shakespeare, c.1608)
    • Heda Gabler (Henrik Ibsen, 1891)
    • Mother Courage and Her Children: A Chronicle of the Thirty Years' War (Bertolt Brecht, 1941)
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  8. #8
    Novels:
    • Herzog (Saul Bellow, 1964)


    Stories:
    • The Complete Stories (Flannery O'Connor, 1946-71)


    Plays:
    • Agamemnon (Aeschylus, 458 BC)
    • Hippolytus (Euripides, 428 BC)
    • The Tragedy of Coriolanus (William Shakespeare, c.1608)
    • Heda Gabler (Henrik Ibsen, 1891)
    • Mother Courage and Her Children: A Chronicle of the Thirty Years' War (Bertolt Brecht, 1941)

    [
    ]

    Non-Fiction:
    • The Birth of Tragedy, or: Hellenism and Pessimism (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1872/86)
    Last edited by baby doll; 05-21-2019 at 10:47 PM.
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  9. #9
    Novels:
    • Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, 1860-61)
    • The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1879-80)
    • Herzog (Saul Bellow, 1964)
    • Suttree (Cormac McCarthy, 1979)


    Stories:
    • The Complete Stories (Flannery O'Connor, 1946-71)


    Plays:
    • Agamemnon (Aeschylus, 458 BC)
    • Hippolytus (Euripides, 428 BC)
    • The Tragedy of Coriolanus (William Shakespeare, c.1608)
    • Heda Gabler (Henrik Ibsen, 1891)
    • Mother Courage and Her Children: A Chronicle of the Thirty Years' War (Bertolt Brecht, 1941)

    [
    ]

    Non-Fiction:
    • The Birth of Tragedy, or: Hellenism and Pessimism (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1872/86)
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  10. #10
    Quote Quoting baby doll (view post)
    [*]The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1879-80)[/b]

    Excellent.

  11. #11
    Quote Quoting kuehnepips (view post)
    Excellent.
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  12. #12
    Novels:
    • The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner (Daniel Dafoe, 1719)
    • Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, 1860-61)
    • The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1879-80)
    • Sanctuary (William Faulkner, 1931)
    • Herzog (Saul Bellow, 1964)
    • Suttree (Cormac McCarthy, 1979)


    Stories:
    • The Complete Stories (Flannery O'Connor, 1946-71)


    Plays:
    • Agamemnon (Aeschylus, 458 BC)
    • Hippolytus (Euripides, 428 BC)
    • The Tragedy of Coriolanus (William Shakespeare, c.1608)
    • Heda Gabler (Henrik Ibsen, 1891)
    • Mother Courage and Her Children: A Chronicle of the Thirty Years' War (Bertolt Brecht, 1941)

    [
    ]

    Non-Fiction:
    • The Birth of Tragedy, or: Hellenism and Pessimism (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1872/86)
    • Narrative Comprehension and Film (Edward Branigan, 1992)
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  13. #13
    Novels:
    • The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner (Daniel Dafoe, 1719)
    • Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, 1860-61)
    • The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1879-80)
    • Sanctuary (William Faulkner, 1931)
    • Herzog (Saul Bellow, 1964)
    • Suttree (Cormac McCarthy, 1979)


    Stories:
    • Selected Stories (Katherine Mansfield, 1910-24)
    • The Complete Stories (Flannery O'Connor, 1946-71)


    Plays:
    • Agamemnon (Aeschylus, 458 BC)
    • Hippolytus (Euripides, 428 BC)
    • The Tragedy of Coriolanus (William Shakespeare, c.1608)
    • Heda Gabler (Henrik Ibsen, 1891)
    • Mother Courage and Her Children: A Chronicle of the Thirty Years' War (Bertolt Brecht, 1941)

    [
    ]

    Non-Fiction:
    • The Birth of Tragedy, or: Hellenism and Pessimism (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1872/86)
    • Narrative Comprehension and Film (Edward Branigan, 1992)
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  14. #14
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    Belatedly:

    1. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
    2. Dune (Frank Herbert)
    3. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (George R.R. Martin)
    4. Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
    5. The Magicians (Lev Grossman)
    6. The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together (Adam Nayman)
    7. The Magician's Land (Lev Grossman)
    8. The Magician King (Lev Grossman)
    9. The Lower River (Paul Theroux)
    10. Kahon Mahorratuek (Prab)
    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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