These 3 books are on order from Amazon (Thanks, Lotus!):
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found - Suketu Mehta,
Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy) - Naguib Mahfouz,
and Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles -Jeanette Winterson.
Weight was already on my Wish List; it is part of the Canon Gate revisionary myth series. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood is one of the more intriguing books I've read this year.
I've bought 3 art books in the last couple of weeks.
Hiroshige: One Hundred Views of Edo. I posted about this on my other blog, but here is a link to all of the prints. Love it.
The Great Masters of European Art full of beautiful reproductions and details.
And most recently, A Child's Book of Art. All three purchases were inspired by a post on Blair's blog about children and art. So I started looking for things for my grandchildren...and got a little sidetracked.
I've always had art books around, but had not thought of them for my grandchildren, even though my kids certainly perused the ones at the house. The availability of so many excellent books on artists, styles, paintings makes a good gift possibility for kids.
The other book purchase lately (and I may start tonight) is Eragon. Scifichic rated it highly.
I'm also now on the look out for the John Scalzi novels reviewed by Carl.
I'm interested in Palace Walk, have had my eye on it for quite a while -- I'm curious what you will think of it.
ReplyDeleteIf you end up reading them I look forward to your thoughts on the Scalzi books. He has a new novel out that is a sci-fi comedy that I look forward to reading called Android Dreams, I believe.
ReplyDeleteJenclair, those art books look fantastic, especially "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo", I'm looking at the prints now and drooling away. "A Child's Book of Art" would make a lovely gift for a young child, so I'm making a note of that, too.
ReplyDeleteI'm thrilled you're going to be reading "The Palace Walk" and "Maximum City". Bombay is the city I grew up in so I'm very excited about the book, also, it was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, wasn't it? I met the author at a function a few months ago and he told us his next book is a biography of New York City...I'm looking forward to that one, too.
Enjoy your new books, Jenclair!
Dorothy - I'm looking forward to Palace Walk; if it is really good, then thereis the rest of the trilogy to enjoy!
ReplyDeleteCarl - The Scalzi books are on the back burner until after Christmas probably, but they are definitely on my list.
Lotus - You slipped in while I was commenting on Dorothy and Carl!
ReplyDeleteHow difficult is it to change the name of a city you grew up in? Some cities are characters in and of themselves aren't they? I bet the one on New York would be fascinating, too.
JenClair, I read Palace Walk a few years ago with one of my book groups. Certainly, I think it gives food for thought, communicating as it does the different mind set of another culture. It's a worthwhile read; narrative style may move a little slowly.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteHi, Jenclair, funnily enough, I have no problem with calling Bombay, Mumbai. I think it has to do with the fact that Mumbai which takes its name from Mumba devi (the patron goddess of the fisherfolk, the orginial inhabitants of Bombay) seems so apt. As you may know, Bombay was the name the colonists (the Portuguese) gave the group of islands, and simply means "Good Bay". But I do have a problem with Bangalore now being referred to as "Bangalooru", whatever will happen to the term "to be Bangalored" I wonder? :)
ReplyDeleteScifi Chick: Soon!
ReplyDeleteLotus: I want to know what "to be Bangalored" means!
LOL, Jenclair, the best I could do was to cut and paste this from Wikipedia. Here goes:
ReplyDeleteBangalored is a neologism and used as a verb. Bangalored is used to indicate a layoff, often systemic, and usually due to corporate outsourcing of the business function to lower wage economies. The word is derived from Bangalore, India, which houses many outsourcing centers for Western economies.
It refers to people who have been laid off from a multinational company because their job has been moved to India (outsourced — a business practice designed to save money that is arousing passions in some countries, especially Britain and the United States). Bangalore is cited in particular because of its reputation in the USA as a high-tech city, and widely regarded as the Silicon Valley of India that has benefited significantly from such outsourcing.
I could have just provided you with the link but I didn't know the html code to do that! :(
Lotus - I should have thought of that! I started reading The World Is Flat by Friedman last year and the topic (if not the word) was explored in such a fascinating way. Thanks so much for the definition and for reminding me that I need to find that book and finish it! I have highlighted so many passages, maybe I can skim up to where I left off pretty quickly.
ReplyDeleteOh, finally a "preview" - I can post a comment!
Hi, Jenclair!
ReplyDeleteHubby and I were reading "The World is Flat" about a year and a half ago on holiday in Dubai and lo and behold, one day, walking through the lobby of our hotel, who should we see, but Thomas Friedman himself (he was there to attend some Middle Eastern conference on Globalization)! :)) Ofcourse, we gushed over his book and he was really nice and made time for a conversation with us. Needless to say, I am very biased towards the book! :)