April’s Audacious Attempts at Assailing Avenues of Literary Adventure.

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Daisy-Boo said:
I'm currently reading Summer Knight, book 4 of the Dresden Files. Each book in the series draws me further into Dresden's world and I'm enjoying the journey. The battered and weary (but never beaten) Dresden is an engaging character and the plots are always entertaining and often quite thought-provoking. I like Jim Butcher's humour too and often find myself smiling at his one-liners.
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Great! Why not join us in our GoodReads book group where we're doing Jim Butcher this month?

I've started on the first: "Storm Front".
 
Trying some historical fiction now, with Rory Clements' Martyr. A sticker I saw on the front of the book said it was perfect for fans of CJ Sansom's Shardlake series, so I thought I'd give it a try.
 
Jayaprakash Satyamurthy said:
@The Judge: Schonberg says that, outside of his symphonies and tone poems, Sibelius wrote little that was significant, which he seems to feel debars Sibelius from a high ranking, although he is kind enough to say he ranks very highly amongst the minor composers. I think he was considerably more than just a very good small-timer, although having only heard his orchestral music I can't comment on his chamber music or songs.
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I don't know if you were parapharasing Schonberg (understandable, as this isn't a Music thread), but I find it hard to believe that a serious commentator would not include the Violin Concerto amongst Sibelius' significant works.
 
I can't recall what Schonberg said about the Violin Concerto; I'll have to check. He also essentially labels Mahler a neurotic, which may or may not have been the case, but hardly helps in assessing his music. Schonberg was not a fan of Bernstein, and one feels that he is reacting more to Bernstein's renditions of Mahler, which can sometimes push it a bit too far, in the passages where he discusses Mahler's music. But as I said this book is well written, well researched and generally very informative. I just disagree with certain individual assessments, which is probably unavoidable with a book like this.
 
Jayaprakash Satyamurthy said:
I can't recall what Schonberg said about the Violin Concerto; I'll have to check. He also essentially labels Mahler a neurotic, which may or may not have been the case, but hardly helps in assessing his music. Schonberg was not a fan of Bernstein, and one feels that he is reacting more to Bernstein's renditions of Mahler, which can sometimes push it a bit too far, in the passages where he discusses Mahler's music. But as I said this book is well written, well researched and generally very informative. I just disagree with certain individual assessments, which is probably unavoidable with a book like this.
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To label Mahler a neurotic, he might as well label most of the great composers the same. Is he the one who boosted his career by criticising Bernstein relentlessly? Bernstein's Mahler was a breakthrough (though there have been better recordings later), highly dramatic and deeply emotional, if that's what he meant by 'neurotic'. I've long given up reading classical concerts reviews as many of them are utter rubbish. I love Sibelius' symphonies especially No. 2 (went out of my way to see Colin Davis/LSO performing it) and No. 5, and yes, the violin concerto. I would think it's quite outrageous to rank Sibelius that low. I wonder what this Harold Schonberg says about Arnold Schonberg... Well, as they say - those who can, do; those who can't, criticize.:p

So far the best music books I've read are Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould by Tim Page and Mahler: His Life, Work and World by Kurt Blaukopf and Herta Blaukopf.
 
Yes, it's that Schonberg. There's a lot of thinly-veiled animosity to contemporary conductors (this book was first written in the 70s) in the book.

However, to be fair I've only been reporting on the passages in Schonberg's book I disagree with. He offers a useful survey to someone trying to get an overview of the high points of the history of western art music, and his chapters on Liszt, Chopin and Ravel have been especially useful. I hardly listen to opera, but his descriptions of various operatic works may yet pique my interest to give this genre a second try.

He does describe the violin concerto as the only one among Sibelius' works for violin that is not just salon fare, and he does mention that Sibelius had an individual voice and may emerge as a more significant composer if there is a return to romanticism or post-romanticism in tastes. I'd say that that prediction is coming true to an extent. However, he still confines Sibelius to a high ranking amongst what he calls 'minor composers'. Sibelius' influence on 20th-century British composers like Walton alone should make it clear that he wasn't that very minor.

Thanks for mentioning the Blaukopf book; I've been reading Michael Kennedy's Mahler book, which seems sound, especially the sections on Mahler's music, but the biographical aspects don't quite cohere into a well-rounded picture of the subject, in my opinion.
 
Finished Gene Wolfe's The Fifth Head of Cerberus which was a good read, if slightly uneven for me. Another short one up next with M. John Harrison's The Centauri Device.
 
Setting myself the task of reading through the Masterworks collection means I haven't read a bad book in ages. Although it doesn't leave me a lot of time to read new SF and all those fantasy series are now waiting for the lotto win and retirement :)
 
Ah, so that's how! It's worth it though - 5 or 6 years ago I set myself the task of reading a whole list of SF classics derived from Clute' SF Encyclopaedia. I didn't read everything on that list, but I did read most of it and it was a massive stretch of very good books (with a few clunkers; sorry Larry Niven) and a great grounding in the genre as well.
 
That's the other problem, each book adds a whole list of new reading to the pile. Olaf Stapledon, Frederick Pohl, Hal Clement, Alfred Bester (and others) are all authors who I've been introduced to via Masterworks and all have other works I'd really like to read but with about 6 Masterworks not to mention non SFF books waiting on the shelf, I think I've finally got the point where my reading list is bigger then I'll ever have time get through. Which isn't a bad thing but rereading is certainly a thing of the past :).
 
Quokka said:
....I think I've finally got the point where my reading list is bigger then I'll ever have time get through. Which isn't a bad thing but rereading is certainly a thing of the past :).
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Err....welcome to the club..:rolleyes: Still not a bad position to be in, especially when you know you're never likely to run out of good quality reads. Take if from me....;)
 
Finished Holly Lisle Diplomacy of Wolves - damn, this book end nowhere :mad: I guess the page count fell and it was time to put other thing into next volume. And to get any conclusion I should read all four volumes - it just won't happen - the first book wasn't interesting enough.
Now back to Burkin and Ostrov Rus 2 - in which the pace picked up just about 1/3 through - still over 100 pages a bit long for a introduction.
Grumpy mood at the moment and can't find right book to read - Turn Coat and Changes should arrive soon - maybe I'll feel better then.
 
Finished Changes by Jim Butcher - the best book in the series for a while, very appropriate title.

Back to the 2nd volume in my Dan Abnett omnibus now
 
Recently finished Anathem by Neal Stephenson, then finished The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, now reading the second in the trilogy Before They are Hanged
 
Started Josie Dew Under the Neon Sun - travels in Japan by bicycle. I found some of her earlier travels (read a few years back) a little intolerant of accommodating and respecting local custom, but this is more respectful and very interesting. Not the picture I had of Japan at all - especially all the reconstruction of historic buildings, and the unsympathetic placement of car parks at beauty spots and the like. Well drawn pictures of the people. Have to say I would not cope with being on my own for weeks on end in a country where I couldn't follow the language at all. She just has a lovely time people watching.

Interrupted reading that because Simon R Green "The Spy Who Haunted Me" arrived - great fun. The greatest ever secret agent is retiring and has invited six young agents to a competition to be his successor. One of whom is Eddie Drood. Usual high class romp. This one has a lot of tie-ins to the Nightside series.
 
crooksy73 said:
Recently finished Anathem by Neal Stephenson, then finished The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, now reading the second in the trilogy Before They are Hanged
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I'm reading ANATHEM right now. Little more than a third of the way through. How's you like it?
 
Finished The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, the last in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. It's without question the weakest of the three - which isn't to say I didn't enjoy it, as I most certainly did - and drifts from thriller to social comment to something very near journalism in places. There are also info-dumps aplenty, which does tend to drag the reader away from the plot. Nonetheless, I zipped through its 700+ pages in pretty quick order (roughly a day and a half) and was at no point bored.

Just started Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black, which is already proving to be an interesting read.
 
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