dbsalk , to bookstodon group
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Something a little different this week: after finishing Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin, I'm pivoting hard to The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. I didn't love Tales of the City, and I think a large part of that had to do with Maupin's narration: for me, his North Carolina accent didn't translate well to a character driven story set in 1970s San Francisco. Hoping the next book will taste better (pun intended). 😂

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Cover for The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. Cover shows a silhouette of a woman and boy cut from the pages of an open book, looking up at a tall apartment building also rising up from the pages of the same open book. A light is on in one of the windows of the apartment building. "Innovative, unique, and poignant... I devoured it in one sitting. - James Rollins

Cover for Tales of the City (A Novel) by Armistead Maupin) "An extended love letter to a magical San Francisco." - New York Times Book Review Cover art is a stylized line drawing of a residential San Francisco skyline with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background and a curved sloping street with a few cars on it. The title is in a black speaking bubble that looks to originate from the green apartment building in the center.
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    • bookgaga , to bookstodon group
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    The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760) https://tinyurl.com/3mz3jjkc

    Northerny by Dawn Macdonald (2024 University of Alberta Press) https://tinyurl.com/2vnr7s47

    JD_Cunningham , to bookstodon group
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    As usual, I'm late to the party, but now am about a third of the way through R.F. Kuang's 'Babel' and thoroughly enjoying the storytelling and how Kuang weaves in such things as British colonialism, the fascinating, dangerous complexities of language, the concentration of power and the fight against it, and so much more into a wonderfully re-imagined Oxford that is recognizable, yet entirely different.
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    dbsalk , to bookstodon group
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    As I noted right here in this feed, this past Saturday was Towel Day. That inspired me to check out The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy from the library to re-read it for the first time since 2000. It still holds up! What a delightful classic.

    Also worth noting: Douglas Adams basically described an e-reader device almost 30 years before Kindle came on the market.

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    Excerpt from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: "...he also had a device which looked rather like a largish electronic calculator. This had about a hundred tiny flat press-buttons and a screen about four inches square on which any one of a million 'pages' could be summoned at a moment's notice. It looked insanely complicated, and this was one of the reasons why the snug plastic cover it fitted into had the words DON'T PANIC printed on it in large friendly letters. The other reason was that this device was in fact that most remarkable of all books ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The reason why it was published in the form of a micro sub-meson electronic component is that if it were printed in normal book form, an interstellar hitchhiker would require several inconveniently large buildings to carry it around in."
    Sign, white text on red background: "DON'T PANIC AND CARRY A TOWEL"

    dbsalk , to bookstodon group
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    This week I'm wrapping up the audio of Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann. This is the second audiobook in a row for me with truly raw depictions of people just scraping by and trying to make the best of their situation. Tillie's narration is heartbreaking. Next audio read needs to be something not so heavy.

    Related: now I feel like I should watch "The Walk" starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (not a bad thing)

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    Book cover for Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann New York TImes Best Seller National Book Award Winner Cover image is a stylized red ink drawing of the New York City skyline creeping up from the lower left to the upper right. Horizontally across the top is a line signifying a tightrope, with a small figure walking the tightrope and holding a balance pole.
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    • dbsalk , to bookstodon group
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    This is turning out to be a book I'm not terribly excited about: The Dog Of The South by Charles Portis. The tone sort of reminds me of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but set in Texas and Mexico and without the hardcore drugs. Parts are funny, but mostly it kind of drags and I'm not sure what the point is. If I wasn't already more than halfway through, I'd probably add it to the DNF pile. @bookstodon

    Cover for The Dog of the South (a novel) by Charles Portis "Author of the No. 1 New York Times Bestseller True Grit" "Hilarious.... This is, to me, a very American voice." - Bob Odenkirk, The Week Cover is white with author, title, and blurbs in block text on a white background. A few images are placed at seemingly random intervals: a keystone, a 1970s style sedan, a tire, and a cat ready to pounce.
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