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Jim’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Jim’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Jim Coughenour’s Followers (227)
2,742 books
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853 friends
2,786 books
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378 friends
778 books
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88 friends
1,336 books
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5,180 friends
871 books
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82 friends
198 books
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6 friends
6,337 books
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1,258 friends
2,117 books
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965 friends
More friends…
Jim Coughenour
Goodreads Author
Born
The United States
Website
Genre
Influences
Pessoa, Kierkegaard, rogue philosophers, flinty lesbian poets, Thom Gu
...more
Member Since
July 2007
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Jennifer's Last Thoughts (Deviled Tongue Chapbooks Nº 2)
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published
2015
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Curious Fruits & Vegetables: An Aleatoric Abecedary of Floral Fauna
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published
2012
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Instant Noir: Savage Tales for Short Attentions
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published
2015
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Sredni Vashtar: An Opera in One Act After a Short Story by Saki
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* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.
Jim’s Recent Updates
"
Tony! You’re still here. I’ve been away from Goodreads for a long time. Great review. I’m curious about this one. I’m a long-time fan of Jan Morris.
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"Jan Morris has taken us to places before: Venice, Oxford, Wales, and Trieste. But here she takes us not just to a place, but to a time: the island of Manhattan, 1945.
The book opens in June of that year, and the Queen Mary is bring home 14,526 America" Read more of this review » |
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"In college I took a course on the 19th century English novel in which Wide Sargasso Sea was assigned to supplement Jane Eyre. I disliked Jane Eyre and so didn’t bother to continue on to Rhys. What a fool I was! I love all the voices here - spare, hau"
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Jim Coughenour
rated a book really liked it
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New Year’s Day. First thing I read is about the guy in New Orleans who rammed his truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street. Here we go. Emmanuel Carrère’s V13: Chronicle of a Trial is the first book I finished this year. Not a light read, not an oppressiv ...more |
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Jim Coughenour
is starting V13
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Jim Coughenour
rated a book it was ok
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| Although I’ve been familiar with Gide and his work via a long acquaintance with Oscar Wilde and Marcel Proust, I’ve never read any of his novels. This is the first and will probably be the last. I was prompted to read it by an early chapter in Edwin ...more | |
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Jim Coughenour
rated a book really liked it
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| A book I bought a few weeks ago as much for its cover as anything, then dropped it on the pile. Picked it up after work today and read it straight through. Grattan has created a character who is anything but admirable, and in fact too much like most ...more | |
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"In Tongues is one of those rare slice-of-life novels that exceeded my expectations at every turn - with every passage, character, and scene so real and true, I couldn't put it down. I don’t think I’ve read a queer lit fic novel quite like this and I "
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Jim Coughenour
made a comment on
Michael Baranowski’s review
of
All Things Are Full of Gods: The Mysteries of Mind and Life
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One star seems harsh for a book you abandoned. It is not an easy read, and I agree that the “conversation” requires a certain negative capability. How
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Jim Coughenour
made a comment on
Jackson Lile’s review
of
All Things Are Full of Gods: The Mysteries of Mind and Life
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Fine review Jackson. I’m in the midst of this book now. And taking it slow, no other way.
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“If someone wants to give you money, whatever the source, you should take it. Every religious-historical authority agrees about that.”
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“Pessimism all along the line. Absolutely. Mistrust in the fate of literature, mistrust in the fate of freedom, mistrust in the fate of European humanity, but three times mistrust in all reconciliation: between classes, between nations, between individuals. And unlimited trust only in IG Farben and the peaceful perfecting of the air force. But what now? What next?”
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“That was a pretty one, I heard you call
From the unsatisfactory hall
To the unsatisfactory room where I
Played record after record, idly,
Wasting my time at home, that you
Looked so much forward to.
Oliver's Riverside Blues, it was. And now
I shall, I suppose, always remember how
The flock of notes those antique Negroes blew
Our of Chicago air into
A huge remembering pre-electric horn
The year after I was born
Three decades later made this sudden bridge
From your unsatisfactory age
To my unsatisfactory prime.
Truly, though our element is time,
We're not suited to the long perspectives
Open at each instant of our lives.
They link us to our losses: worse,
They show us what we have as it once was,
Blindingly undiminished, just as though
By acting differently we could have kept it so.
- Reference Back”
― The Complete Poems
From the unsatisfactory hall
To the unsatisfactory room where I
Played record after record, idly,
Wasting my time at home, that you
Looked so much forward to.
Oliver's Riverside Blues, it was. And now
I shall, I suppose, always remember how
The flock of notes those antique Negroes blew
Our of Chicago air into
A huge remembering pre-electric horn
The year after I was born
Three decades later made this sudden bridge
From your unsatisfactory age
To my unsatisfactory prime.
Truly, though our element is time,
We're not suited to the long perspectives
Open at each instant of our lives.
They link us to our losses: worse,
They show us what we have as it once was,
Blindingly undiminished, just as though
By acting differently we could have kept it so.
- Reference Back”
― The Complete Poems
Crime passionnel
— 10 members
— last activity Sep 23, 2009 02:49PM
If you like books which are more 'novel' than crime, particularly those in translation (Montalbano series, Massimo Carlotto, Stieg Larsson, Henning Ma ...more
Scandinavian Mysteries
— 276 members
— last activity Jul 29, 2020 10:30PM
A group for fans of mysteries written by Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic and Finnish writers.
Poetry Readers Challenge
— 650 members
— last activity Jan 04, 2026 04:05PM
Let's talk about poetry books. This group's members read poetry collections, with the goal of reviewing twenty in a year. C'mon. Do it. It's good for ...more
Big Fat Books
— 10 members
— last activity Jul 02, 2013 11:44PM
Enjoy reading big fat books? However, there are times when you come across a few that seems daunting and despairing? Well, here is the place that wi ...more
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Happy New Year, Jim!
Dear Jim,Actually I just "friended" you as a way to communicate to you that if you wish to remain on my "Bureau of Public Secrets" mailing list you need to send me your current email address -- the old one no longer seems to work.
Ken Knabb
knabb AT bopsecrets DOT org
Move over Mescaline, Bolaño's going to get that vibe for you. I don't know where you're starting with him, it doesn't matter, his genius is splattered across his books & poems & fictional memoirs like a plane disaster. Dig around anywhere & you'll get a jolt of pure Roberto.Sometimes even in most prosaic sentence is something astonishing, ominous, soul-chilling. But throughout its his physical mind making love on the page, suffering rejection, suicide attempts, travesties beyond charting. Let him have his way with you.In the meantime, if you need to detour from the eminent profane to scabrous comedy that will make you scrub your sticky hands and check your bedclothes, check out Dirty Havana Trilogies by Pedro Juan Gutierrez. As soon as you've read the first 3 pages you'll either be grooving or gag. "Sex isn't for the squeamish," Pedro Juan cautions, and proceeds to prove his point and little else. Appalling. Makes me want to wander the warm wet winds of El Malecón Habanero all night with my zipper half down, drenched with seaspray, heady with some caramel kiss.
Hi Ed, I look forward to catching up on your list. Right now I'm distracted by the upcoming election - which, happily, will soon be over.
Thank you for the friends add, Jim. Much success and good reads to you. Have a great week.Ed Lynskey
Author, PELHAM FELL HERE
