11 Comments

I've been flirting with Master & Margarita for quite some time, so I'm eager to read your review. Also, the new Netflix "Pinocchio" movie premieres tonight. It's directed by Benicio del Toro and based on the Collodi Pinocchio, so is very non-Disney-like (which is good). You may want to avoid it if Collodi is on your list. I recently picked up a wonderful interpretation of Collodi's version, illustrated by Gris Grimly.

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I’ve been looking forward to Master and Margarita for a while. This project finally gave me an excuse to read it. And thanks re Pinocchio; I’ll be reading the Collodi book!

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I read M&M so many years ago. Interested in reading your review. P&P is one I periodically reread. Love! I read Things Fall Apart in college, but I don’t remember it. The new app The Story Graph can import your Goodreads history and create recommendations, but I haven’t used that feature.

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Story Graph sounds interesting—like Pandora for books.

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What a great list! I'm glad you included Catch-22! You give me something to look forward to in 2023! :)

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I’m a little ambivalent about reviewing fiction, so this will be interesting for me too :)

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Dec 9, 2022Liked by Joel J Miller

You’ve prompted me to try P&P again. I tend to agree with Mark Twain about her writing, but I know more must be below the surface so maybe this year might be the year for her to win me over. I just get so frustrated over a society where the destiny, good or bad, of a woman depends on how well she marries.

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That’s valid. But that’s also one of the benefits of reading books outside our time—it exposes us to other ways of being, some of which help indirectly to explain what’s positive or elevated about our own time.

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Master and Margarita is a head game. I might re-read some parts of that. Things Fall Apart is fine. I don’t remember being wow’d or bored.

Are you going to Jerusalem next year? Or is that a typo?

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More a joke than a typo: Maybe next year but probably not.

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I’m so glad *A Tree Grows in Brooklyn* made the cut! It’s very, very good.

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