The Nervous Breakdown discussion

Books, magazines, literary publications, etc.

Wake Up, Sir by Jonathan Ames.

50 Great Short Stories.

Alice Munro's short story collection "Friends of my Youth."

Gonville by Peter Birkenhead.

Been chewing my way through Agaat.
I created a twitter hashtag to mark my progress and share my thoughts as I go (#agaat), to keep my thoughts straight as I go....

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by PK Dick and Lolita

Rameau's Nephew by Diderot. Heady stuff, Dennis had brain muscle.

Going to start Case of the Missing Servant - the author will be joining my group next week to discuss his novels. Gotta get a leg up, so to speak!

One Day by David Nicholls, and I'm completely infatuated with it. I can't wait to read his earlier novel Starter for Ten / A Question of Attraction , but it seems to be out of print. Boo.

I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita. A great novel, a chunk of history and several tablespoons of philosophy between two covers. Late 60s history of San Francisco, amazing stuff.

I started Almost Dead: A Novel and love the writing style. it sort of just sucks you in.

Binnie Klein's Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind. I'm loving it!

Just bought a copy of Life & Fate by Vasily Grossman, it's the War & Peace of WWII. My copy is published by the NY Review of Books which has an amazing list of reprints of forgotten books that deserve a new readership. Check them all out.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (finally!)

Just finished Your Presence Is Requested at Suvanto: A Novel, which kind of underwhelmed me.

And just started Fangland: A Novel - which I hope knocks my socks off. I've been dying for some NYC vamp lit.

Tom wrote: "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by PK Dick and Lolita"

I can't get over this combo!

Recently started Readings by Sven Birkerts (I may not be spelling his last name right). I'm not so sure how I feel about it yet, but I've just begun.

Next up is One Day by David Nicholls.

Just started Totally Killer: A Novel

I just started Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham (too soon to tell), and will soon finish Storm Front, first of the Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher (which I'm enjoying) and just received Glimmer Train 76 in the mail. Does anyone publish a better short story anthology. I have submitted there but have yet to have a story accepted; it remains a goal.

Specimen Days is actually pretty good, but yes, it does take about the first third of the book to really get into it.

Currency by Zoe Zolbrod. Delish!

I just started Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto by Maile Chapman. Good so far.

I just finished Jennifer Egan's short story collection: Emerald City. It's luscious. Trying to read Kraken, by China Mielville, but having trouble getting into it.
Her Fearful Symmetry creeped me out, but I think I just have something against evil or psycho twin books, because it was well-written. Had the same trouble with I Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon. I didn't know these were evil/psycho twin books before I read them, or I would have avoided them.

Happy to say that I am ringing in the New Year with my copy of Subversia - by the strangely alluring D.R. Haney! (wink wink, nod nod)

Mid-century pulp by Miriam Allen deFord - Xenogenesis. And some of the best cultural criticism ever: The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty by Dave Hickey, who I would follow around like a submissive puppy if given the chance.

Do you love Alice Munro the way I love Alice Munro? I mean, I cannot get enough of her. I just read Too Much Happiness and even though I had read one, maybe two things before (most notably the story, Child's Play a year or two ago in Harper's) she bowled me over again. There beats a wonderfully human heart with more than a little of the divine spark. She is astonishing; she alone is an entire chapter, the one entitled, Why I Love Canada, in the chapbook of my life.

I don't want disappointment in any book, but finishing an Alice Munro s always somewhat disappointing; I never want it to end.

Hoping to avoid letdown, I started Laura Lippman's I'd Know You Anywhere. I've never read her but I had to give this fellow Marylander a shot. The book was number three on Stephen King's favorites of 2010, and like him or not as a writer (I do), the man has great taste. If you doubt that, check out The Best American Short Stories 2007, which he edited. You'll never question him again.

As for Laura L, well: I'm digging it so far! (There is a bad pun there relating to a bad man with a shovel, but it's not worth the stretch).

Next up for me: Tobias Wolff, Our Story Begins. God, I love him. After that, Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen, I believe.

What's next for you?

Happy page turning!

I am in the middle of a couple of books by Nervous Breakdown authors, actually. All About Lulu by Jonathan Evison, and Slut Lullabies by Gina Frangello. I'm pretty high on the Evison, read West of Here last year and loved it--Lulu is different, to be sure, but still readable and engaging.

The Last Chairlift, John Irving. Classic JI! Love it!