Our Noble Selves by Kate Atkinson

 

I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend by Martin Short

 

Listened to a couple hours of this memoir/biography - I love Martin Short's work and roles, think he's peerless - but the mocking-self-putdown, while also self-congratulatory, style, and the celebrity namedropping wore pretty thin by halfway through.

 

Got two books of Walker Evans photo out of the library and am slowly relishing and turning over the plates - it's a lot to take in. His evolution from handheld to fixed camera was dramatic - his eye was capacious - and his persistence and attention to detail enormous.

It was description of his subway series in Amor Towles first novel that drove me to look him up: candids he took unbeknowst to the subjects. Their starkness and humanity and beauty touched me.

Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta

 

A little generic coming-of-age story by the author of ELECTION. Things move along fast - he uses very short (usually 2-3 page) chapters - so the plot as it were thickens nicely, but there's nothing surprising in the characters. And the overlay of a middle-aged successful in-crisi author's POV feels weird.

The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley

 

Frustrating NYRB classic, slow moving. Trying to stick with it but mired down halfway through it. Sort of a SEPARATE PEACE or ATONEMENT vibe, but grander scope of language, sometimes losing sight of the 12 year old boy protagonist.

What Not by Rose Macaulay

 

Listened to this driving home from Chicago. Absorbing but not that great. Wanted other books by her but couldn't find anything else recorded. Sci fi dystopian 1920 Britain, the Dept of Brains, people are classed by mental acuity and breeding laws passed to try to limit stupidity. Love story within all this.

Fascinating but thin.

The Mission House by Carys Davies

 

Listened to this driving out to Chicago, slow start but great in the end. Totally absorbing activity to do while driving.

A Confederacy of Dunces: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by John Kennedy Tootle and Albert Monteys

 

Had to get, as they're never gonna make the movie version, at least not in my lifetime.

Unimpressive drawings and obviously-reduced text.

Meh from me.

Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis with Larry Sloman

 

Lent to me by a good, respected - if not respectable  -friend. I'm not a big RHCP fan except for their sophomore effort FREAKEY STYLEY (produced by the infinite George Clinton), and Kiedis is self-admittedly and unabashedly a junkie (from an early age - maybe 14 was first heroin use?), so not that reliable a narrator. But I'm finding the sleazy Hollywood/LA/endlesstoursing narrative pretty riveting - what a life, what travels, what meetings and what a grand sleazy musical perfomative mess he's made over the years.