Thread: Readme: the book thread. Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Kindle, paper, vellum, papyrus, clay tablet... What are you reading?

Firenze
Heaven Host
 

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Posted by QLib (# 43) on :
 
How to be Good by Nick Hornby. Too early to say yet.

Just finished Huckleberry Finn. Haven't read it since childhood (in fact I think my dad must have read it to me, and left out the bit about the feuding families) so although I loved it, I never really appreciated what a great book it was.

Also just finished Why genes are not selfish (etc.) by Colin Tudge - really useful explanation of the science of why Dawkins is Wrong - at least the Biology of why Dawkins is wrong, I'm not sure about the Physics, because I don't have Physics to that level. He seems to take a similar line to Fritjof Capra, and I know some physicists don't really rate Capra, though I daresay that's a topic for a different thread.
 

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Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
I'm in the middle of 1000 Years of Annoying the French by Stephen Clarke, which is a jolly romp of cross-Channel japery and Francophobia.

Also waiting for the next Philippa Gregory to come out in paperback.
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
I've just returned a book by Joanna Trollope to the library - I must say I prefer Anthony.

I'm re-reading A Darker Place by Laurie R King on my kindle. It's about a woman, an expert on religious movements whose husband and child were killed in a cult years earlier, who is sent into a cult by the FBI to check whether this one too is going to implode.

I like Laurie King as she writes interesting women. She's probably best known for her Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell series, but I think Folly is my favourite, along with the earlier Kate Martinelli series.
 

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Posted by marzipan (# 9442) on :
 
Currently I'm not reading anything, in an attempt to make myself revise the Highway Code for when I take my driving test in a couple of weeks.
My sister got me The Ice Dragon for Christmas - I think it's the shortest George RR Martin book there is (it's an illustrated children's book about dragons). Only problem was I finished it the day after I got it (but if you have kids who are into dragons, they'd probably like it. Chapters are short so it could be a bedtime story).
Though I do need to see if I have a copy of witches abroad floating about so I can maybe join in the book club this time around
 

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Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on :
 
I'm finishing the last few pages of PD James' A Taste for Death (hardback ). I've got an increasingly large pile of books to get though (added to by Christmas gifts, of course), including the next two Merrily Watkins stories; the new Anthony Horowitz Moriarty; a children's historical novel; and a biography of Harry Houdini.

Dontcha just lurve books...
 

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Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :
 

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Originally posted by Piglet:
I'm in the middle of 1000 Years of Annoying the French by Stephen Clarke, which is a jolly romp of cross-Channel japery and Francophobia.

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Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
... "Bye Bye Baby" about Bay City Rollers fandom in the 1970s (gently amusing).

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Do you roll up your jeans and put on stripy socks and a tartan scarf while you're reading it?
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I am reading Lady Audley's Secret, by M.E. Braddon. Also At Day's Close, nonfiction by A. Roger Ekirch.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
Just finished my first book of 2015, Susan Jane Gilman's The Ice-Cream Queen of Orchard Street, a fantastic, rollicking historical novel that will also tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the history of ice-cream making in America. I loved every minute of it.
 

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Posted by Aravis (# 13824) on :
 
New paperback: In Other Worlds by Margaret Atwood - an account of her lifelong appreciation of science fiction. It's very readable and very thought provoking so I keep rereading bits. Examples of her ideas in the first chapter include a discussion of the origins of superhero costume, and an explanation of how Batman expresses Jungian archetypes.

On my IPad (ie a book to fall asleep with when the light turns itself off) I'm rereading The History of Mr Polly (HG Wells).
 

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Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :
 

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Originally posted by Aravis:
New paperback: In Other Worlds by Margaret Atwood - an account of her lifelong appreciation of science fiction. It's very readable and very thought provoking so I keep rereading bits. Examples of her ideas in the first chapter include a discussion of the origins of superhero costume, and an explanation of how Batman expresses Jungian archetypes.

On my IPad (ie a book to fall asleep with when the light turns itself off) I'm rereading The History of Mr Polly (HG Wells).

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Originally posted by Athrawes:
I've just started Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Has anyone read it? I'm finding it a bit hard to get into, but think it will get easier once the story proper starts.

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Originally posted by QLib:
How to be Good by Nick Hornby. Too early to say yet.

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Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:
I loved Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell when I read it a few years ago. I keep hearing rumours of a sequel and/or a movie adaptation, but nothing definite about either. ....

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Originally posted by Athrawes:
I've just started Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Has anyone read it? I'm finding it a bit hard to get into, but think it will get easier once the story proper starts.

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Originally posted by Sipech:
Having only managed to finish 40 books last year, am looking to increase that in 2015. So far, I've finished Kate Fox's Watching the English and Catherine Osborne's Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction.

Am now ploughing my way through Mark Miodownik's highly entertaining Stuff Matters.

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Originally posted by JoannaP:
Sipech, what did you think of Watching the English? It has been on my wish-list for a while but I have not actually bought it yet.

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Originally posted by cosmic dance:
On finding out that I would have to wait for weeks in the library reserve queue to get my hands on The Rosie Project, I bought it on my Kindle. A very funny and relaxing holiday read. And a very recognisable main character if you live with anyone even slightly on the autism spectrum. Also on Kindle I am re-reading Middlemarch for the first time since my student days. What a genius was George Eliot! I appreciate it so much more with a lot of years behind me.

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Agree on both counts. I loved every minute of "The Rosie Project," it was just so much fun and "Middlemarch," is on my short list of greatest novels ever. I think it should be required reading before marriage. It had so many good examples of how hard it can be to actually live with our choices.

Yesterday I started, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I'll be back in a few months with a review. It's 1267 pages in my large print version. My thumbs hurt and there's very little room for my dog on my lap! I love this writer, though, her detailed descriptions may make her books massive, but they certainly do put you in the moment.
 

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Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
You might be interested in the Ship's Bookclub thread on The Rosie Project. We weren't so impressed. In fact, I think some of us were quite rude about it.

I am still enjoying Mel Starr's Hugh de Singleton books and am rationing them. So far I've read The Unquiet Bones, A Corpse at St Andrew's Chapel, A Trail of Ink and Unhallowed Ground, two of them over Christmas. There are three more published. They are detective stories in the style of Cadfael. Set a couple of hundred years later, in and around Oxford and this chief protagonist is a surgeon.

Having seen him on The Write Stuff I discovered Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne series, and have read a few of those on my megacommute and while travelling around. The protagonist here is a contemporary London policeman. The originals were bought at two for £5 at a bus station before I started on a 5 hour journey, but I've since bought some for the Kindle. There's a TV series too. Pushed to give some idea of Tom Thorne, he's a bit like a North London version of Rebus.

One of the very cheap offerings from Kindle when I was buying books to go away was Fractured by Dani Adams, which was based on an interesting idea and would be difficult to discuss without spoilers. I wouldn't pick up her next book as I have a limit to how much chick lit I can read and I suspect from the blurb it might be a rerun of the same idea, neither was her writing wasn't so great I want to read her again. However, the reviews on Amazon are mostly brilliant. (I suspect I'm still suffering from the purchase of The Rosie Project for the Kindle with the offerings suggested now.)

And for breaks between books, I'm reading Saki's short stories - one or two each gap. They are a bit of a liability to read on the tube as they tend to make me laugh out loud, and sitting sniggering at a Kindle tends to get you strange looks.
 

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Posted by JoannaP (# 4493) on :
 
I have broken out of solely comfort reading and picked up some non-fiction again. I am currently reading The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives but I am not sure I will make it to the end. I am finding it very hard going - not helped by the fact that I know the wrong Ancient Middle Eastern language (and my German is rusty and my French was never up to academic book standard).

I am sure that, for the majority of readers, transliterating Egyptian hieroglyphs into Hebrew is helpful, but it is hard enough for me to remember which set of symbols is which name, without having to also remember that a blocky Y-like thing represents a forearm.
 

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Posted by cosmic dance (# 14025) on :
 

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Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
You might be interested in the Ship's Bookclub thread on The Rosie Project. We weren't so impressed. In fact, I think some of us were quite rude about it.

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Umm..I just thought it was a fun holiday read, not great art or psychology.

 

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Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
cosmic dance - I couldn't even read The Rosie Project as a light holiday read as I found the misconceptions so irritating. But I was frustrated by the inaccuracies in Longbourn too.
 

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Posted by cosmic dance (# 14025) on :
 
Yes, I guess I don't know much about autism so misconceptions are not such a concern for me. I agree that misconceptions about a subject that you know about are very irritating.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 

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Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
I am still enjoying Mel Starr's Hugh de Singleton books and am rationing them. So far I've read The Unquiet Bones, A Corpse at St Andrew's Chapel, A Trail of Ink and Unhallowed Ground, two of them over Christmas. There are three more published. They are detective stories in the style of Cadfael. Set a couple of hundred years later, in and around Oxford and this chief protagonist is a surgeon.

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Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
And for breaks between books, I'm reading Saki's short stories - one or two each gap. They are a bit of a liability to read on the tube as they tend to make me laugh out loud, and sitting sniggering at a Kindle tends to get you strange looks.

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Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
The Book of Negroes (called Someone Knows My Name in the USA market) by Lawrence Hill, which is also just started as a miniseries by CBC, coming elsewhere next fall. It is excellent.

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Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
Sandemaniac - Yes - already read The Unrest Cure - that was fearsomely savage.

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Given that Saki is considered anti-semitic in many circles these days, I was really interested to find at the end of it that I was questioning who was really the anti-semite - Clovis, the other protagonist, the author, or myself for laughing at it so hard. It's a very difficult question because looking at the likes of Chesterton it seems to have been an accepted viewpoint at the time.

AG
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Anyone read the new Murakami book in English (or in Japanese?) I plan to get it in hardback next time I go into the store. He is my favourite writer and I never buy his e-books. Any other fanatics?

I wonder if they have it at Costco.........
 

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Posted by betjemaniac (# 17618) on :
 
Just finished LTC Rolt's autobiographical trilogy (The Landscape Trilogy) - covering everything from industrial apprenticeship policy in 1920s Britain, Gloucestershire steam ploughing during the depression, the Foundation of the Vintage Sports Car Club, the beginning of the Inland Waterways Association and the death of canal freight, the rescue of the Talyllyn Railway, I could go on! A hymn for England (and Wales - but mostly my own native borderlands and Wyre Forest).

What a life...
 

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Posted by Jane R (# 331) on :
 
Just finished reading The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. Funny, clever, well-written urban fantasy.

Also read 'With passport and parasol' by Julia Keay, a book about seven Victorian women who were travellers and explorers - which has made me want to go off and read all the books in the bibliography to find out more about them.
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
Finished off Rachel Mann's Dazzling Darkness last week. Have now moved onto F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
Currently reading the 3rd Merrily Watkins book on my kindle thanks to various people having mentioned this series on previous threads.

Huia
 

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Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on :
 
Ah! I have two Merrily Watkins waiting to be read (I'm up to about no.11 in the series) after I've finished Anthony Horowitz' Moriarty

I too started reading them after threads here.
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
A friend recommended "Death in Lacquer Red", by Jeanne M. Dams. I wasn't nearly as enthralled by this book as my friend! The story started a bit slowly for my taste, and ended in a manner that really didn't address the "Who dunnit" aspect very well.

Our detective claimed over and over to be very clever, but she seemed a bit of a butterfly brain to me.

I won't read any more of this series.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I've been reading Gladys Mitchell's Mrs Bradley books, after seeing Diana Rigg being her on TV. The TV changed the books far far more than it did Chesterton's Father Brown. And I have written to the local library to suggest that stocking one of them might not be appropriate. Re-issuing a book (The Saltmarsh Murders) with a black character in it of the sort that is in it is deeply questionable. Far, far worse than Pratchett on Mrs Gogol, it used not only the n word, but the attitudes that went with it back below the Mason Dixon line, and not only in the mouths of characters, as can be seen at times about Jews in books of the period, but in the whole drawing of the person, or rather, caricature.
Pity.
 

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Posted by Paul. (# 37) on :
 
Just finished Danny Wallace's Who is Tom Ditto? Not sure why I picked it up after I was only so-so about his first novel Charlotte Street. But I did and it was also a bit meh. But it was a not unpleasant easy read I suppose. It's trying to say something about identity and the choices we make to live our lives but it's more of a light downbeat romcom, if such a thing exists.
 

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Posted by JoannaP (# 4493) on :
 
I am currently reading "Birds of a Feather" by Jacqueline Winspear, featuring Maisie Dobbs, which is leading me to compare and contrast the three female post WWI detectives I read about in library books. Maisie's world is definitely the bleakest (probably the most realistic but, not having been around at the time, I do not know for sure) and the only one to feature the suffering of injured soldiers, as opposed to having an occasional character (usually a doctor), who limps.

The Daisy Dalrymple series (by Carola Dunn) is great fun and wonderful comfort reading. A lot of young men died in the war but now all that is over and it does not impinge very much.
Kate Shackleton (by Frances Brody) is in between the two; people are still suffering from the war but not as much as in Maisie's world and there are fewer seriously injured veterans.

One way of comparing them is fate of the heroines' partners: Daisy's fiance was killed and she is now happily married to somebody else.
Kate's husband is missing, presumed dead, probably blown to smithereens, and she desperately wants proof of his fate.
Maisie's fiance is a vegetable and she feels very conflicted about the idea of seeing somebody else - at least as far as I have read, which is not very many. Maisie is also the only one who was injured herself in the great war.

Does anybody else know all 3 and do you have any comments?
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
Brilliant news today.

Harper Lee has announced she is to release her second novel on the 14th of July. Source
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 

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Originally posted by Sipech:
Brilliant news today.

Harper Lee has announced she is to release her second novel on the 14th of July. Source

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I can only hope it lives up to the first one


JJ I downloaded a Jeanne Dams book on my kindle and was really disappointed. I won't be reading any more either.

Joanna P I have really enjoyed the Maisy Dobbs books - although given how grim they sometimes are 'enjoyed' may not be the right word. I've read one of the Daisy Dalrymple series and while not as dire as the Jeanne Dams mentioned above, I'd only take it out of the library if I couldn't find anything else. I haven't read the other author but will follow up as I'm going on holiday on Friday.

Huia
 

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Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :
 

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Originally posted by JoannaP:
I am currently reading "Birds of a Feather" by Jacqueline Winspear, featuring Maisie Dobbs, which is leading me to compare and contrast the three female post WWI detectives I read about in library books.

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Originally posted by Firenze:
Kindle, paper, vellum, papyrus, clay tablet... What are you reading?

Firenze
Heaven Host

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Originally posted by Michael Snow:

quote:

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Originally posted by Firenze:
Kindle, paper, vellum, papyrus, clay tablet... What are you reading?

Firenze
Heaven Host

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Why Kindle and not Nook? I'm not an e-reader. Just wondering how much of a monopoly Amazon has.

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Originally posted by Firenze:
Talk of the past being a foreign country - ebooks have enabled the re-issue of shedloads of period detective fiction: anything which could plausibly (or implausibly) be described as 'Golden Age' has been dredged up.

And what's the first thing happens in these books? They find the body and immediately move it somewhere else. and then trample up and down the scene of the crime, pocketing any interesting items they find.

Nowadays we are so imbued with the idea of CSI that it completely destroys the credibility of the narrative - and no amount of railway timetables or poisoned golf balls or whatever engine the author uses to manufacture the puzzle can rescue it.

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Originally posted by Palimpsest:
Just read "The Last of the Tin Can Sailors". It's a historical work about the Leyte Gulf naval battle in WWII where a small group of destroyers and destroyer escorts had to fight a large armada of Japanese Battleships.

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Originally posted by Jane R:
Just finished reading The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. Funny, clever, well-written urban fantasy.

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Originally posted by Palimpsest:
I read "Foxglove Summer", the newest volume in the Rivers of London series that was a book group selection earlier. It takes the hero out of the city and into the country. It's ok, but it makes me realize how much I enjoyed the part that the City played in the earlier books.

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Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
I have just finished We are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. I loved it.

I can’t actually say that much about it without some kind of gigantic spoiler, but I highly recommend it. I’ll just say it’s an amazing take on the (unintentionally) dysfunctional family and what it means to be human.

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Originally posted by Dafyd:

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Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
I have just finished We are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. I loved it.

I can’t actually say that much about it without some kind of gigantic spoiler, but I highly recommend it. I’ll just say it’s an amazing take on the (unintentionally) dysfunctional family and what it means to be human.

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Yes. I enjoyed that too. I'd seen a documentary about one of the real life cases a year or so back so I felt I had some context.

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Originally posted by LutheranChik:

I'm now headed to the nonfiction aisle, specifically: "One Summer: America, 1927" by Bill Bryson. It's about what it says it is; just a snapshot of what was going on in the US, both in pop culture and in politics, during a few months in 1927. Bryson is an entertaining, witty author, whether he's writing about his own travel adventures or tackling other issues, so I'm looking forward to his take on the Roaring Twenties.

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Originally posted by Eigon:
I loved the Ronald Coleman film of Prisoner of Zenda, of which the Stewart Granger re-make was but a mere shadow (though in colour). I mean - not only Ronald Coleman, but David Niven and Douglas Fairbanks Jr, too - and poor old Stewart Grainger only got James Mason.

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Ah David Niven --- Swooon
 

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Posted by Sarasa (# 12271) on :
 
The best stage play I ever saw was The Prisoner of Zenda at the Greenwich Theatre about twenty-five years ago. Thoroughly enjoyable romp, as are the books.
I'm reading one of the Merrily Watkins books by Phil Rickman. I can't make up my mind if they like them or not.
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
Sarasa, I've just finished reading the Merrily Watkins books, well all except the most recent, which I have on order at the library. I decided that Gomer was my favourite character because of his steadfastness.

It took me a while to get into the series, I'm not really sure why except maybe the author took a while to hit her stride, or it took me a while to settle to her style.

Contrasting that with the very different Matthew Shardlake series by CJ Sansom (which I mentioned in the "Wolf Hall" thread) where I just slipped into the story and was hooked. I've almost finished the 3rd book, after which I'm taking a break so I can make the series last longer.

If anyone has any suggestions as to other books or authors - I'd be interested. I'd vaguely thought of re-reading "The Alexandra Quartet" by Laurence Durrell as I don't think I really understood it when I first read it over 40 years ago.

Does anyone know of any novels set during Oliver Cromwell's time or there about?

Huia
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
Rosemary Sutcliffe wrote a good one about General Fairfax called The Rider on the White Horse. It's told from his wife's point of view. Apparently she wrote it for her mother, who was a staunch Roundhead, while she was rather more "wrong but wromantic" and preferred the Cavaliers, so Fairfax was a good compromise candidate.
Daphen du Maurier wrote something about a Cornish (of course) family during the Civil War, too, but I can't remember the title.
 

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Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
Just finished enjoying 'Engleby' by Sebastian Faulks, about a working class lad at Cambridge. I expected it to be somewhat like 'Gorbals Boy at Oxford' or 'Room at the Top', but it was altogether more disturbing, soon becoming obvious that it was not only class which distinguished the main character from the rest of his student cohort. I won't spoil the plot by revealing too much, but suffice to say there are many twists and turns in the labyrinth of a quite disturbed mind.
 

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Posted by JoannaP (# 4493) on :
 
I've just finished Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch; it took me a while to get into it, mostly because it does not seem to have occurred to the author that somebody might read it without having read the previous two, but it became really gripping. The combination of characters doing magic spells and references to Captain Picard did take some getting used to. I will definitely try to find the others in the library and read them in order.
 

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Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :
 
Does anybody here keep a book diary?

I've been keeping one since 2000, starting on 1st March, so today is the last day of the 'book year'. I'll do a count-up and then start afresh tomorrow. My only rules are no half-read books and no re-reads. Oddly, although there is no competition with anybody else, I always find myself finishing books or reading shorter ones towards the end of February.
 

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Posted by Jane R (# 331) on :
 
Not me, I have enough trouble remembering to write things down in my work diary.

After a fabulous day out in Whitby my TBR pile has grown to nine books - count them, nine! - so that's my spare time taken care of for, oh, at least the next week and maybe longer: one of them is Adrian Tchaikovsky's latest which is big enough to stun an elephant. I will check in again when I've read a few of them, but in the meantime I can heartily recommend Endeavour Books (second-hand) and The Whitby Bookshop for any bibliophiles within striking distance of Whitby.

I only came second in the crazy golf match afterwards, but you can't have everything.

[ 28. February 2015, 20:34: Message edited by: Jane R ]
 

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Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :
 

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Originally posted by ArachnidinElmet:
Does anybody here keep a book diary?

I've been keeping one since 2000, starting on 1st March, so today is the last day of the 'book year'. I'll do a count-up and then start afresh tomorrow. My only rules are no half-read books and no re-reads. Oddly, although there is no competition with anybody else, I always find myself finishing books or reading shorter ones towards the end of February.

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Originally posted by Jane R:
... but in the meantime I can heartily recommend Endeavour Books (second-hand) and The Whitby Bookshop for any bibliophiles within striking distance of Whitby.

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I'd second that recommendation. The Whitby Bookshop used to have a cat that would sit nestled amongst the display books in the window; always a good sign in any shop.
 

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Posted by ChastMastr (# 716) on :
 
I am sloooooowly working my way through Screwtape Letters again. I heartily recommend pretty much everything C.S. Lewis ever wrote.

I'm about to catch up on Dan Slott's run on Spider-Man, which I am very much behind on. It culminates in Spider-Verse, which I have not yet read, so no spoilers please! I'm still way back in the middle of the Original Sin crossover.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
I do the book blog thing as well -- post a short review of every book I've read. It is interesting to look back and see what I've read. What is most interesting is when I look back and see that I read a book a few years ago and have NO recollection of it whatsoever!
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
I am currently a bit more than halfway through The Eddie Malloy Series. The writer is not Dick Francis: this author has the same character all of the way through 1670 pages! A jockey who solves murders is the protagonist.

I have been riding horses with a high degree of skill since age eight though I have never done steeplechase. My ideal summer job, as I live in a backwater where work dries to a trickle from May through September would be as a lad at a stables somewhere in California at a job training horses with lodging included!

It is an easy read in spite of its length: I wish I could write like that. Perhaps I need to take a university course in writing novels for publication: my first failed novel is all but unreadable. I cannot even get my wife who is an English teacher and published author to even read a full chapter!

I also go surfing a few times a year in San Diego County and plan to go on another surfing safari later this month. These are my two participant sports. I may visit a Shipmate during opera season...

Anyone, American or English should enjoy this series!
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 

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Originally posted by Sipech:


I also track what I read on a spreadsheet, recording how long it took me to read a book, how long it was (in number of pages) and how long the review was (in number of words).

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Originally posted by Sir Kevin:

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Originally posted by Sipech:


I also track what I read on a spreadsheet, recording how long it took me to read a book, how long it was (in number of pages) and how long the review was (in number of words).

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How dreary! Are you retired from work?

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Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:

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Originally posted by Dafyd:

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Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
I have just finished We are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. I loved it.

I can’t actually say that much about it without some kind of gigantic spoiler, but I highly recommend it. I’ll just say it’s an amazing take on the (unintentionally) dysfunctional family and what it means to be human.

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Yes. I enjoyed that too. I'd seen a documentary about one of the real life cases a year or so back so I felt I had some context.

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I believe we have that scheduled for a book club discussion here in our Heavenly book club sometime this year, so that will be a good opportunity to discuss it spoilers and all!

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Originally posted by Josephine:
So far, I'm enjoying it more than I enjoyed the Earthsea Trilogy. Not that I didn't enjoy the Earthsea Trilogy, but I never felt the need to go back and re-read it, or to encourage anyone else to read it. But The Dispossessed ... so far, it's just amazing.

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Originally posted by Penny S:
I did read the Earthsea trilogy way, way back, and had problems with it. The obvious one about no women magicians. And I couldn't quite get the meaning of Ged's shadow and the way it was dealt with.

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Originally posted by TurquoiseTastic:
On the other hand "The Dispossessed" and "The Left Hand of Darkness" I found moderately interesting but was left with a feeling that I didn't quite "get" them.

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:

quote:

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Originally posted by Penny S:
I did read the Earthsea trilogy way, way back, and had problems with it. The obvious one about no women magicians. And I couldn't quite get the meaning of Ged's shadow and the way it was dealt with.

---

It's now the Earthsea Quartet, although there have been other books set in Earthsea.

Le Guin was a product of her time. You'll find a few other themes of suppressed women in other fantasy writers of that generation. You might also find Marion Zimmer Bradley's Lythande stories interesting, if a little melancholy.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Huia:
Piglet I vaguely remember him writing under another name too - possibly Harding. I agree with your comment, I think it's because Brother Athelstan cared for his strange congregation, and there was a warmth towards him on their part too.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Paul.:
Just finished Funny Girl by Nick Hornby and We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves by Karen Jay Fowler.

Funny Girl is set in the early 60s and is the story of the rise of a young female SitCom star. At least that's what the title and the marketing suggest. It's actually about the team as much as it is about a single character - so the female lead, the male co-star, the writing team and a producer. It's good, readable (as with all Hornby) and enjoyable.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - what can I say about this? Not much because it's an upcoming Ship book club pick, but also for another reason. The book contains what I'll call a shift in perspective about a third of the way in. It's something that causes you to rethink assumptions you've made about the story. It's one of the few cases where I genuinely think the "twist" is helpful to the story and not just there for surprise value. I also think that as you read on you gradually adjust and absorb the new info into the worldview of the book and it ends up not being that different from where you started.

Anyway it's about families and relationships and loyalty and what makes a person worthy of respect. Well worth a read.

---

And a re-read in my case. I read it some time ago thinking it was a sequel to
We Are All Made Of Glue - I remember being pleasantly surprised but not a thing about the plot - so thanks for not putting any spoilers in.
 

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Posted by pimple (# 10635) on :
 
Meanwhile I'm working my way through the poetry of Imtiaz Dharker. I normallt dip into poetry books and take most of them back to the Red Cross Book shop with half of them unread. But this almost like coming across poetry for the first time. Wherever I start I can't stop - even in the ones I don't understand.
 

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Posted by Paul. (# 37) on :
 
Finished another good book - Station Eleven by Emily St.John Mandel.

I suppose you'd call it a post-apocalyptic story but it's also pre- and during apocalypse. And it's about multiple characters and storylines, some of which collide and some which merely glance off each other. There's a group of itinerant musicians and actors that form the Travelling Symphony, a troupe that make their way in the world of the ruins of civilisation by putting on Shakespeare and performing concerts.

But it's also about other things, some of which are very much about the world as it is now.

I enjoyed it but I can imagine some people might not.
 

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Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
I love Imtiaz Dharkar's poetry. I've even been lucky enough to see her perform.
 

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Posted by JoannaP (# 4493) on :
 
Another case of reading the third book from a series as it was the earliest in the library...A Red Herring without Mustard. Apparently Flavia de Luce has a cult following but I am not part of it. The narrative voice was not credibly that of an an 11-year old girl IMHO and why the hell was she not in school?? If it was set in the 1950's (a big if, as the references to chewing gum and Hiroshima felt very intrusive) then the Butler Education Act was in force...

I am also having difficulty trying to work out a situation in which a married woman could die intestate and her property not automatically pass to her husband. However, these niggles are not serious enough for me to feel compelled to read the two pervious books in hope of answers.
 

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Posted by JoannaP (# 4493) on :
 
I appear to have been guilty of cultural chauvinism

Reading the free sample of the first book in the series, I realised that nowhere did "A Red Herring..." explicitly state that it was set in England, I just assumed that. So the Butler Act may not apply. Likewise it never states when it is (I got the 1950 reference from the Internet).
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
Just finished Bart Ehrman's How Jesus Became God. As ever, Erhman's writing is fantastic, though he does fall into the trap of using the "many scholars" argument without saying who or how many. A very interesting read on the historical development of Christology.

Next up, I think I may join in with a few shipmates as I picked up Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist a few weeks ago.
 

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Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :
 
The Waiting, by Cathy LaGrow.

This was a biography of a woman who was raped at 16, gave birth to her baby in a South Dakota home for unwed mothers, cared for her for a month, and then surrendered her for adoption.

The details of this woman's life are minutely detailed, which is what made it so fascinating for me. The wrench of giving up her child and seventy seven years of "waiting," to find out what happened to Betty Jane are the center of the book but it's also the story of a brave woman's life lived over the course of a century. Really good and very different.
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
I've just finished a very strange book of short stories by Haruki Murakami, called Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. It took me a feew days to get through it. but it was very enjoyable. I never guessed what would happen next!
 

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Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Twilight:

The details of this woman's life are minutely detailed,

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quote:

---

Originally posted by JoannaP:
I've just finished Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch; it took me a while to get into it, mostly because it does not seem to have occurred to the author that somebody might read it without having read the previous two, but it became really gripping. The combination of characters doing magic spells and references to Captain Picard did take some getting used to. I will definitely try to find the others in the library and read them in order.

---

Somebody donated a copy of Rivers of London to the bookshop where I volunteer... It is excellent, a series to buy rather than borrow.

(I did decide to only buy thrillers as ebooks but when I can get 2nd hand copies far more cheaply, it doesn't seem sensible. Until I get home and see the piles of books preventing me from getting to the bookcase. )
 

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Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :
 
I bought a few secondhand Nevil Shute novels in UK, had them delivered to my mate Steve who brought them out with him and this afternoon I have finished Trustee From The Toolroom, his last book and possibly his finest. Published over 50 years ago and still just as powerful.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I've just finished reading "Master and God" by Lindsey Davis (and have just ordered her latest detective novel to be collected tomorrow). I had the oddest feeling that I had read bits before, but not the whole thing, so I must have glanced through at some stage before putting it into the TBR pile. One passage in which a fly on the wall watches Domitian doing not very much. A passage in which a group of legionaries are held prisoner in Dacia. And another in which the principal characters finally get together. But all the stuff about Domitian and politics and plots was totally new.

However, the opening, with the principal male in the vigiles, merged into the Flavia Alba books on the one hand, and the Watch books of Terry Pratchett's on the other. (The last Tiffany Aching book is due out in September.)

[ 09. April 2015, 18:47: Message edited by: Penny S ]
 

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Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on :
 
The latest Charlie Parker book by John Connolly was released today and pinged onto my Kindle App at midnight. Halfway through already and finding it very hard to put down
 

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Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :
 
I just finished The Enigma of China, being the 8th Inspector Chen story by Qiu Xiaolong. As usual, the mystery aspect of the crime is interwoven with political considerations for Chief Inspector Chen...this time to such an extent that he fears it may be his last case as he comes up against powerful foes.

But, apparently, it isn't his last case, because later this year Shanghai Redemption is slated to come out and the title strongly suggests to me that it will be a direct sequel to Enigma, focusing on the fallout from the case.

While Qiu Xiaolong does have a tendency to get up on a soapbox during his novels, the character of Chen and his friends & associates is such that I find the series to be pleasant reading. And I am glad that Enigma wasn't Chen's last case because I really do want to know what happens next!

[Edit: Typo!]

[ 09. April 2015, 20:38: Message edited by: Hedgehog ]
 

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Posted by Badger Lady (# 13453) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by JoannaP:

quote:

---

Originally posted by JoannaP:
I've just finished Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch; it took me a while to get into it, mostly because it does not seem to have occurred to the author that somebody might read it without having read the previous two, but it became really gripping. The combination of characters doing magic spells and references to Captain Picard did take some getting used to. I will definitely try to find the others in the library and read them in order.

---

Somebody donated a copy of Rivers of London to the bookshop where I volunteer... It is excellent, a series to buy rather than borrow.

---

I've read the whole series. I do like it - in particular the mix of reference and the grounding of magic in our world. However, having read them in fairly quick order the stories do get a bit samey and the overall story arch (which I won't say more about for fear of spoilers) grinds to a halt completely in some books which is frustrating.

BadgerGent is a police officer and some of the stuff about police bureaucracy and procedure is *very* accurate.

 

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Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kitten:
The latest Charlie Parker book by John Connolly was released today and pinged onto my Kindle App at midnight. Halfway through already and finding it very hard to put down

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Penny S:
I did read the Earthsea trilogy way, way back, and had problems with it. The obvious one about no women magicians. And I couldn't quite get the meaning of Ged's shadow and the way it was dealt with.

The later books dealt with the first problem, somewhat.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by JoannaP:

quote:

---

Originally posted by JoannaP:
I've just finished Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch; it took me a while to get into it, mostly because it does not seem to have occurred to the author that somebody might read it without having read the previous two, but it became really gripping. The combination of characters doing magic spells and references to Captain Picard did take some getting used to. I will definitely try to find the others in the library and read them in order.

---

Somebody donated a copy of Rivers of London to the bookshop where I volunteer... It is excellent, a series to buy rather than borrow.

---

I have just picked up the latest, Foxglove Summer from the library where
I had it on reserve, It seems so long since I read the others I'm tempted to re-read them as they're already on my kindle, but reading them close together wasn't great the first time round.

Huia

[ 17. April 2015, 04:42: Message edited by: Huia ]
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
Just finished The Miniaturist which I was reading along for the book group thread, only that one seems to have died. Perhaps I was the only one reading it.

It's good storytelling, but the whole title is a MacGuffin. One could leave out the whole tale of the miniature house and its figurines without abandoning the story. So I was left a bit disappointed that the book was nothing like what I expected, but it was well told and excellently paced.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
Questions in the book group thread normally get posted around the 20th of the month, so the thread will be quite quiet until then, other than people popping in to say, "I'm reading it!"
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I've just picked up a batch of the British Library reprints of classic detective fiction by writers one has never heard of. Among them was "Death on the Cherwell" by Mavis Doriel Gay. Set in a women's college in the 20s, it invites comparison with the almost simultaneous "Gaudy Night" by Dorothy L Sayers, and has, so the preface announces (I haven't got much past the first chapter) similar approached to the education of women, at the time deprived of the possibility of being awarded degrees at the end of their "undergraduette" (I quote the disapproval of the local press by the Warden) careers. What the preface did not mention was the hidden reference to the writer in "A Piece of Justice", one of Jill Paton Walsh's Imogen Quy Cambridge detective stories. I don't think there was any open reference in the book (as a note or appendix) to Gay, who ended up not writing, but running a quilting revival in Wales. And I can't find any reference in online reviews, but, with the theme of women students denied degrees in the recent book as well, I can't believe that Walsh didn't choose her plot detail by accident. (Trying to avoid spoilers here.)

[ 17. April 2015, 10:53: Message edited by: Penny S ]
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
I managed to drown the library's copy of Foxglove Summer with a chocolate drink so I am now reading it on my kindle and have bought the library another copy So much for my attempt to save money by borrowings from the library.

Huia
 

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Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :
 
A bit of exploration and I find we are coming up to centenary of first women to get a degree from Oxford which is a bit rich given that St Andrews did it in 1894. Oh Cambridge, do not even mention Cambridge.


Jengie

[ 18. April 2015, 10:31: Message edited by: Jengie jon ]
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
Penny - Thank-you, I must look out for that. I've read the Jill Paton Walsh book and found it fascinating.

I am beginning to think I will never read Foxglove Summer. I couldn't find my kindle last night and when I finally found it this morning it was sitting on top of the wheelie bin in the front yard. thank goodness it was a dry night. To avoid further adventures my kindle is now sitting on my bedside table.

Huia
 

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Posted by JoannaP (# 4493) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Penny S:
I've just picked up a batch of the British Library reprints of classic detective fiction by writers one has never heard of. Among them was "Death on the Cherwell" by Mavis Doriel Gay.

---

She is actually Mavis Doriel Hay; British Library Crime Classics (BLCC) have republished all 3 of her whodunnits. "Murder Underground" is the first, followed by "Death on the Cherwell". I have enjoyed all the BLCC I have read so far, and would warmly recommend the series to anyone else who likes classic detective fiction.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
Thanks for correcting that. I was checking the spelling of Doriel, but I think I may have missed the key on Hay. I think I was on the netbook, which has a teeny keyboard. I keep missing things, and G and H are neighbours.

I'm currently on "The Cornish Coast Murder" by John Bude, nom-de-plume of Ernest Elmore, also writer of early SF. There's a sort of easter egg in the first chapter, in which he references other authors of the time, also avsilable now as BLCCs - Farjeon, and Freeman Wills-Croft. Also Edgar Wallace, Sayers and Christie. And, curiously, a J.S. Fletcher. Presumably somebody knew about this writer when writing "Murder, She Wrote." I would expect a name check before inventing a character. I haven't come across any of his books yet.

The books are very attractively produced, as well as being good reads. Good cover design in both layout and choice of images (often from railway poster art in the ones I've read so far). Good feel in the hand.

Someone round here is also keen on them, and passes them on to Oxfam when read, so I'm using the shop as something like a subscription library, renewing the Gift Aid on them when returned, as well. But they are also useful for the extra book when something I want as a keeper is in a BOGOF type offer, as well.

[ 19. April 2015, 15:00: Message edited by: Penny S ]
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
I've just finished Elizabeth is Missing , winner of the 2014 Costa Book Awards. Beautifully written, it's a book that will linger in my mind.

Before that I read Craig Robertson's Random, a new crime fiction writer to me. It's set in the familiar crime thriller territory of hard-man Glasgow (yawn), but the plot was original. It was sufficiently gripping to be un-put-downable on a noisy train journey.
 

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Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :
 
Over the weekend I finished Baroness Orczy's Eldorado, which (if memory serves) was the fourth novel featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel. As usual, there is a strong romance plot...although this time, instead of love conquering all, the love interest is the major obstruction in the plot. Out of love, one of Sir Percy's band of adventurers betrays him, resulting in Sir Percy being captured by the French and thrown into prison, where he is deliberately starved and kept sleep-deprived in order to keep him from hatching a plan to escape. Oh, and there is a sub-plot involving the Dauphin.

While I find Orczy to be overly wordy (especially her tendency, about two-thirds of the way through a book, to recap all that has gone before), there is something enjoyable about her faux-historicals.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
That may be an artifact of how they were originally published. If the work was originally serialized in a periodical, or published over several volumes over a period of time, then a recap would help readers remember. In an ideal universe the author rewrites slightly for the completed book edition (Dickens and Collins did this) but Orczy may not have.
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
I finished Foxglove Summer the latest in Ben Aaronovich's "Rivers of London" series with PC Peter Grant. I really liked it. Maybe it was because I had had a gap after reading the last one.

Now of course the wait for the next one. I hate that. I am purposefully leaving CJ Sansom's last book
Lammentation unread so I can look forward to it. I plan to start on my birthday as a present to myself - not long to go now.

Huia
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
Am falling slightly behind my 'one book per week' average. Just finished Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics which was my 16th title finished this year. Am just starting up on the first 5 books of Livy's History of Rome. That'll take a while so am still charging on with Tom Wright's Simply Good News - that is an excellent book. It's sort of a summary of Paul and the Faithfulness of God, only 1/10th of the length and a bit more forthright.
 

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Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :
 
Today I finished Nevil Shute's The Pied Piper, I remember my brother having it as a set book for his "O" Level in the late 1950s - I haven't read it for probably 40 years. An excellent read and a wonderfully crafted low key ending. Something lighter next, I think.
 

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Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :
 
My book club, largely consisting of opinionated old biddies like myself, gave an unprecedented, unanimous five star rating to this book:

Big, Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. Not that it was a, Great, capital G, book but just such a rollicking good read.

It's a contemporary mystery about a group of mothers whose children all go to the same kindergarten class.

We all loved that it was set in Australia. From a literary standpoint many of us hadn't been there since "The Thorn Birds." It's changed a lot.
 

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Posted by JoannaP (# 4493) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by JoannaP:
I have enjoyed all the BLCC I have read so far, and would warmly recommend the series to anyone else who likes classic detective fiction.

---

Alas, this is no longer true Murder in Piccadilly is not up to the standard of the others; I don't like whodunnits where the reader knows who did it. Also, the young man who is the main character makes Bertie Wooster look bright!
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I think I would agree with you on that. The characters which reappear on the Cherwell seem to have improved in Oxford.

I am now part way through "The Female Detective" by Andrew Forrester, which is interesting in that it was written in 18something or other, and what it says about its time, but is not gripping. The first story shows the woman just being nosy.

Also "The Antidote to Venom" by Freeman Wills Croft, which is an early version of the Columbo principal of letting us know who the criminal is early on and then showing how they are discovered. I don't like stories about people I don't like doing stuff I don't approve of. There is possibly one reasonable character, apart from the policemen. Apparently FWC's religion influences the end, with repentance being involved.

My reading rate has dropped badly with the two of them.
 

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Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on :
 
I'm reading and enjoying CS Lewis' 'Till We Have Faces', a retelling of the Cupid & Psyche myth - it's quite a page turner and it's quite unlike anything Narnian !

[slight tangent]
The Beeb have been trailering their new series 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell', a book I have sometimes seen in charity shops but never bought because it was so fat! Has anyone read it? is it worth getting?
[/slight tangent]
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Lewis was justifiably proud of Till We Have Faces. To write from the viewpoint of an ugly woman was a leap, he said, for a male writer. I am more impressed with how he orchestrated the protagonist's change of heart -- not easy to do from a first-person viewpoint.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell won the World Fantasy Award. It is the most Dickensian fantasy novel going, and the most common complaint is of its length and slow start. I am certain that the TV dramatization will vastly prune and condense. You might consider watching the show and only moving on to the book if you like what you see.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
As the oldest of three sisters (see Sophie in "Howl's Moving Castle"), as the one who did not get asked to dance at church socials and so on when middle sister was the belle of the ball and came back glowing to share the bedroom in which I was silently crying into my pillow, I absolutely hated "Till We Have Faces". It made me feel I was being got at, and told I must accept my place as the failure.
I shouldn't have read it as a teenager.
It may have had many good points. I couldn't see them. I can't bring myself to reread it, though I have occasionally thought I should.
And I think the original is at least as much about Cupid becoming independent of his malicious mother as it is about the apotheosis (?) of Psyche.

[ 30. April 2015, 17:08: Message edited by: Penny S ]
 

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Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Penny S:
As the oldest of three sisters (see Sophie in "Howl's Moving Castle"), as the one who did not get asked to dance at church socials and so on when middle sister was the belle of the ball and came back glowing to share the bedroom in which I was silently crying into my pillow,* I absolutely hated "Till We Have Faces". It made me feel I was being got at, and told I must accept my place as the failure.
I shouldn't have read it as a teenager.
It may have had many good points. I couldn't see them. I can't bring myself to reread it, though I have occasionally thought I should.
And I think the original is at least as much about Cupid becoming independent of his malicious mother as it is about the apotheosis (?) of Psyche.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alyosha:
As a kind of evidence to the whole confusion of the election rituals I realise I have somehow posted on the wrong thread and don't know how to change it. Joy.

Anyway, hello everyone. Blessings to you all.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alyosha:
As a kind of evidence to the whole confusion of the election rituals I realise I have somehow posted on the wrong thread and don't know how to change it. Joy.

Anyway, hello everyone. Blessings to you all.

---

It takes a bit to get your sea legs on the Ship, Alyosha! One of my early blunders was somehow posting the same post THREE times. Give it time and you will settle in. Welcome aboard!
 

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Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :
 
Election doctrine followed by election rituals made a strange sort of sense anyway.
 

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Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on :
 
Gosh, such feelings towards Lewis! I haven't got that far into Till We Have Faces yet, Orual has only just found out Psyche is still alive, so I haven't met Cupid.

I haven't got sisters either, and I'm enjoying the story so far. I'll reserve final judgement until I've finished it.
 

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Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :
 
Stumbled across a book I'd been hunting for ages. It is a novella written in German, titled in translation (I thought) The Last at the Scaffold. Turns out the English title is 'The Song at the Scaffold.'

Author is Gertrud von le Fort (I think I've spelled it right; left the book on my desk.)

Anyway it was made into a play and thence into an opera libretto used by Francis Poulenc for 'Dialogues of the Carmelites,' which opera I love.

I'm glad to have the book as a reference, but I don't care much for the writing (or maybe the translation). Perhaps I'll try to find the German original -- should be good for my grammar and vocab.

The story, which is short, tells of a convent of French Carmelite nuns arrested and condemned to death in the last 10 days of the Reign of Terror. The opera ends with the 16 sisters singing the Salve Regina and going to the guillotine one by one. (The sound of the guillotine is written into the orchestra.) A chilling finale, as you might imagine.
 

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Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :
 
Stumbled across a book I'd been hunting for ages. It is a novella written in German, titled in translation (I thought) The Last at the Scaffold. Turns out the English title is 'The Song at the Scaffold.'

Author is Gertrud von le Fort (I think I've spelled it right; left the book on my desk.)

Anyway it was made into a play and thence into an opera libretto used by Francis Poulenc for 'Dialogues of the Carmelites,' which opera I love.

I'm glad to have the book as a reference, but I don't care much for the writing (or maybe the translation). Perhaps I'll try to find the German original -- should be good for my grammar and vocab.

The story, which is short, tells of a convent of French Carmelite nuns arrested and condemned to death in the last 10 days of the Reign of Terror. The opera ends with the 16 sisters singing the Salve Regina and going to the guillotine one by one. (The sound of the guillotine is written into the orchestra.) A chilling finale, as you might imagine.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I just read The Dark Clue, by James Wilson. Terrible.
 

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Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :
 
After quite a lot of time without, I've finally renewed my library card and have been trawling through the library graphic novel section. Libraries are particularly useful for comic books which are often twice the price of prose books and so too expensive to buy on the off-chance they might be good.

Particular stand-outs have been the Locke and Key series: gothic weirdness, imperfect but heroic characters and genuinely creepy evil. Good for fans of Neil Gaiman.

Also The Pride of Baghdad, about the lions which escaped from Baghdad Zoo after it was bombed. Surprisingly moving and complex for such a short book. This would be perfect as a first graphic novel for an adult; don't be fooled by the cartoon lions into thinking it's YA fiction.
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
Always going through a few. About half way through Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker which has gone a bit turgid, after a very bright opening.

Also going through Ruth Picardie's Before I Say Goodbye which is both smirk-inducing and tear-jerking in equal measures.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I am now reading a book titled Madame Bovary's Ovaries, which for the title alone is irresistible.
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
I've just finished Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson, which tells the story of Galileo's life from the time he gets interested in telescopes with a bit of added time travel. Galileo gets to visit the moons of Jupiter far in his future, which is nice. It also incorporates a lot of original documents (edited to read smoothly within the story), so I learned a lot about Galileo's life, and his relationship with his daughter the nun Sister Celeste Marie (and his other daughter who never spoke to him again after he put her in the convent).
When I saw Kim Stanley Robinson - I was lucky enough to go to his Kaffeeklatch at WorldCon last year - he said this was the first book he'd really enjoyed writing again after a long period of hard slogging. It may have something to do with the fact that he now writes under a canopy in his garden, with birds flitting round him - but you can tell from the writing that he was having fun.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Penny S:
I think I would agree with you on that. The characters which reappear on the Cherwell seem to have improved in Oxford.

I am now part way through "The Female Detective" by Andrew Forrester, which is interesting in that it was written in 18something or other, and what it says about its time, but is not gripping. The first story shows the woman just being nosy.

Also "The Antidote to Venom" by Freeman Wills Croft, which is an early version of the Columbo principal of letting us know who the criminal is early on and then showing how they are discovered. I don't like stories about people I don't like doing stuff I don't approve of. There is possibly one reasonable character, apart from the policemen. Apparently FWC's religion influences the end, with repentance being involved.

My reading rate has dropped badly with the two of them.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Huia:
...Now of course the wait for the next one. I hate that. I am purposefully leaving CJ Sansom's last book
Lammentation unread so I can look forward to it. I plan to start on my birthday as a present to myself - not long to go now.

Huia

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I am now reading a book titled Madame Bovary's Ovaries, which for the title alone is irresistible.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Chorister:
Have just taken 'The Rosie Effect' to the Oxfam Recycling. Probably best read after reading 'The Rosie Project' by the same author (Graeme Simsion) as it continues the story of Don and Rosie after they get married. This is no normal marriage, but a meeting of two extraordinarily eccentric people who fate has brought together. Edge of your seat stuff, especially when you discover that they are going to have a baby...

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quote:

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Originally posted by georgiaboy:
Still unpacking from a recent move, I happened upon 'Five Novels of Ronald Firbank,' which I didn't even know that I possessed!
Fortunately all the novels are brief, otherwise I'd be lost for days. I can't wait to dive into 'Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli.'

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quote:

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Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
Last night I finished my umpteenth reread of The Lord of the Rings - still good - and then today I picked up Nevil Shute's On the Beach. I love his very spare writing especially when dealing with such a tough topic. I am enjoying it, I think.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Penny S:
But I'm getting quite fed up with errors.

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• The Trojan Horse episode of the Trojan War
• The Renaissance Popes and the Protestant Reformation (Secession she calls it)
• The British royal and parliamentary mis-handling of the American Revolution, and
• the Viet Nam War

quote:

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Originally posted by venbede:
War and Peace.

I can get through some hard stuff - yep, I've read Ulysses.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
what did you begin with? I have yet to pick up MIDDLEMARCH. [LIST]

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quote:

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The latest was a Celtic warrior with a torque round his neck.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Paul.:
Just finished Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

I'd never read it, saw it in the library and thought, "hey it's quite short".

It may be short but it's written in a kind of poetic language that's hard to read easily - for me at least. I had to keep going back through paragraphs to check whether something had actually happened. I get that he was probably trying to create a particular mood by use of language but it tripped me up a lot.

Overall I'm glad I read it, but it was a bit of a slog.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Doc Tor:
SWTWC is one of my favourite books ever. Yes, Bradbury's prose is often more poetry than not, but I find it has a rhythm and beauty to it, even when describing terrible things.

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quote:

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And the character of the father is one of the finest portrayals of fatherhood ever written.

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Yes, as a quiet, bookish, middle-aged man, I did appreciate that
 

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Posted by Pomona (# 17175) on :
 
I have just finished Sara Maitland's A Book Of Silence. I've also read Maggie Ross' The Fire Of Your Life, and Thomas Merton. Other books to be recommended on the solitary/eremitical religious life?
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
That deserves a thread of its own. There will be quite a few. Care to start one?
 

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Posted by Pomona (# 17175) on :
 
Certainly!
 

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Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :
 
I've just finished re-reading a Ngaio Marsh and I can't help feeling that, within the genre, I prefer her writing to that of P D James. This one was Clutch of Constables, published in 1968, but none the worse for that.
 

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Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 
I liked that too, and I also prefer Ngaio Marsh to P.D. James. There is a streak of something disquieting in James' writing.

Moo
 

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Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :
 
...and Ngaio Marsh's detective has a for more sensible name!


 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Doc Tor:
SWTWC is one of my favourite books ever. Yes, Bradbury's prose is often more poetry than not, but I find it has a rhythm and beauty to it, even when describing terrible things. And the character of the father is one of the finest portrayals of fatherhood ever written.

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It just hit me that some of Peter Straub's work "sounds" like Bradbury, particularly this book.
 

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Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
Having got through The Lady Queen, I galloped through The Forbidden Queen by Anne O'Brien, a fictionalised (and very romanticised) story of the life of Katherine de Valois, wife of Henry V (and later of Owen Tudor). A bit fluffy, but readable and enjoyable.

I've now decided it's too long since I read the Brother Cadfael books so, having recently reacquired copies of the first two in the series (which I lent to someone years ago and didn't get back) I've started at the beginning.

That should keep me out of mischief for a wee while ...
 

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Posted by Waw consecutivum (# 18120) on :
 
Current reading, in no particular order:
New Spring - Robert Jordan
Eye of the World (Wheel of Time 1) - Robert Jordan
The Two Towers
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Paradise Lost - John Milton
Commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes - Charles Bridges
Finnegans Wake
Plato's Philebus

I started Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon", but it makes "the Wake" look easy by comparison. If algorithms are your thing, OTOH...
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I am reading The Lambs of London, by Peter Ackroyd. I have no idea why (it is not in the period I am working in and has no relevance to my research). It just seemed interesting and I took it out of the library.
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
Am almost keeping up with my average of a book a week at the moment. This morning I finished How God Became Jesus, edited by Michael Bird. It's a response to Bart Ehrman's How Jesus Became God. Straight away I then started on Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 which has kept being pushed down my 'to read' list.

Though I'm really trying to time things so that I finish one work just as Harper Lee's Go Set A Watchman comes out. The 14th is inked in my diary.
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
My Young Man sent me the second Ms Marvel graphic novel, Generation Why, which is a lot of fun, with some serious things to say about how teenagers are written off in modern society. Also, Ms Marvel goes completely fan-girl when she meets Wolverine, which is just adorable!
 

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Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I'm reading A Rainha Ginga ('Queen Ginga'; I don't know if the book has been translated) by Agualusa, arguably the best Angolan writer of this time.

Queen Ginga was a real person, and she led an African empire that stood up to the Portuguese for a long time, not in the least because of her excellent diplomatic skills. She called herself king and had a harem of dozens of 'women': men who were forced to dress as women, including a number of captured Portuguese.

The book is also about the fight between Holland and Portugal over domination of Angola and Brazil, told from the point of view of a (fictitious) priest who worked as Queen Ginga's advisor and who's gradually losing his Catholic faith.

Very interesting. I've wanted to read something from this writer for a long time, and it's very good indeed.
 

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Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :
 
I'm almost finished a re-read of The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicholson, a biography of the summer of 1911 in England. This is background reading to my re-creation (at Kentwell Hall in August) of a trained Red Cross nurse on leave from France in 1915. Then I'm moving on to A Nurse at the Front by Edith Appleton, a military nurse who worked at base hospitals and on an ambulance train in France. I'm particularly interested in her experiences of nursing the casualties of Ypres.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I have just finished "Look to the Lady", an Albert Campion novel by Marjorie Allingham, and I am proper peeved about the ending.

I got it from the library because I had watched the episode on TV, and the recording cut off just before the ending, when it would have revealed, so I thought, what terror had gripped the criminal on looking into the secret room (an echo of Glamis castle, I suspect), leading to death by falling from an anyway inadequate rope.

Read all the way through the book. I think I would have liked her writing in my Haggard period rather than my Sayers period. Anyway, arrived at the last page. This is not a quote, but a paraphrase from memory.

"The visor would have been up" says one character, of the gigantic plate-armoured mummified supposedly Saxon Guardian, implying that the mere sight would have been enough.

"But saying "No, no," as if responding to someone? And I heard something else," says our hero.

"Best not to inquire too deeply," responds another, and the book ends.

Bah, Humbug, and I know a cop-out when I read one. All the rest of the supposedly supernatural through the book had been exposed as not.

It now joins all those children's writings which ended with "and then they all went home for tea - THE END", or "and they woke up and it was all a dream", which I tried to encourage the young to abandon. I only once had to suggest that if a deus ex machina were to be employed, giving a few hints earlier in the story was a good idea. I am pretty sure that there were no clues to this one. (The boy's story was very good, and he totally got the idea of the god in the crane.)

[ 23. June 2015, 13:13: Message edited by: Penny S ]
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
Gosh, but Neil Gaiman can write some disturbing stuff!
I got his short story collection Fragile Things because it contains The Problem of Susan (his answer to the Narnia stories) which is very good, and I was pleased to see that it also contains A Study in Emerald, his Conan Doyle crossed with Lovecraft story - also very good.
But then there's the one with Mr Alice, narrated by a serial killer who works for him, which is very creepy, and one which seems to be a try out of the idea for the Graveyard Book, where a little boy runs away from home and meets a ghost boy - and I don't think I'm going to read the rest of the stories at bedtime!
 

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Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :
 
I recent bought Fragile Things for my 14 year old (we share our kindle account) and he tells me he quite enjoyed the ghost boy story He found the book a bit random but I suspect that is because he isn't used to short stories. I didn't realise The Problem Of Susan was in it, I must read that.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
No, Gaiman will pull a fast one on you. He is excellent, but wavers between sweet and scary in a disturbing way. Be very careful never to read the first volume of his Sandman graphic novels before bedtime.
I adored Study in Emerald, however. His Susan story has been famously controversial.
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
and now I've been sitting up late into the night to finish Foxglove Summer, by Ben Aaronovitch. It's the fifth PC Peter Grant novel, and sends him to the wilds of Herefordshire to deal with invisible unicorns!
There are several nice little tributes to Terry Pratchett in the turns of phrase he uses, and some of it is very funny.
He also did his homework on Herefordshire - he sets most of the story around Leominster and the Mortimer Trail (I've walked the trail not far from his fictional village). It's recognisably Herefordshire, but quite different from Phil Rickman's novels (I don't think Phil has set one in Leominster yet, though).
Some of my favourite lines:
Peter has packed his boots. "I've been to the countryside before, and I learn from my mistakes."
And when another character says he moved to Hereford for the city life, Peter's opinion is that it's not really a city. "It is!" says Dominic, of the West Mercia Police. "It's got a cathedral and an Ann Summers!"
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I enjoyed that one, but I think the author seems more naturally at home in London. Looking forward to the next!

Revisiting two old Andre Norton favourites - "The Zero Stone" and "Uncharted Stars". Lots of unanswered questions, including who or what was Eet and what are the zero stones really about?

I read a lot of her books at one time but hardly any Witch World ones, so might look for some of those.
 

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Posted by Paul. (# 37) on :
 
Just finished In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume. It's a fictional set of characters but based on real events, namely the 3 plane crashes that occurred in Elizabeth , New Jersey in the space of 2 months in 1951/52.

I enjoyed it though keeping track of all the characters was a challenge.
 

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Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on :
 
I'm nearly halfway through Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (it's a big book!), which I started reading cos I was enjoying the TV series, which finished last night.

I'm enjoying the book, too, which is surprisingly amusing and often makes me giggle ...and having seen it on TV I can hear the actors' voices in my head, which is always nice.
 

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Posted by Paul. (# 37) on :
 
I read the book in preparation for the TV show, and as happened to me with Game of Thrones, I finished the book but have yet to complete the TV show. I've got them all on my DVR but I need a few hours free to sit through them.

Don't regret reading the book though, it was fun.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
Prompted by the TV series I picked up the "Jonathan Strange" book in Waterstones but found the author's style difficult to read. I wanted to like it, but didn't, so didn't buy it. The TV version, on the other hand, was gripping (though it seemed to have been filmed through a green filter which was a bit depressing).
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
I'd been saving Foxglove Summer for when I was from home. Unfortunately, it only lasted me a morning. I've got a fair bit of hanging about airport time tomorrow, and it looks as if I may be relying on pieces in the LRB on the economic fortunes of Grimsby and the like.

I have a Georgette Heyer 'tec novel on the go, which is somewhere between sub-enthralling and actively irritating. I looked at some of the titles that came up on Amazon in 'if you liked that, you'll this' for the Aaronovitch - but beyond gathering that magical/fantasy policing in London now seems to be a Thing, nothing seemed to leap out. Anyone have recommendations?
 

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Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 
I like most of Georgette Heyer's detective novels. Which one are you dealing with?

Moo
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
IMO Georgette Heyer's core strength was her Regencies. Her detective novels are simply not as good.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Moo:
I like most of Georgette Heyer's detective novels. Which one are you dealing with?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Eigon:
and now I've been sitting up late into the night to finish Foxglove Summer, by Ben Aaronovitch. It's the fifth PC Peter Grant novel, and sends him to the wilds of Herefordshire to deal with invisible unicorns!
There are several nice little tributes to Terry Pratchett in the turns of phrase he uses, and some of it is very funny.
He also did his homework on Herefordshire - he sets most of the story around Leominster and the Mortimer Trail (I've walked the trail not far from his fictional village). It's recognisably Herefordshire, but quite different from Phil Rickman's novels (I don't think Phil has set one in Leominster yet, though).
Some of my favourite lines:
Peter has packed his boots. "I've been to the countryside before, and I learn from my mistakes."
And when another character says he moved to Hereford for the city life, Peter's opinion is that it's not really a city. "It is!" says Dominic, of the West Mercia Police. "It's got a cathedral and an Ann Summers!"

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quote:

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Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:

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Originally posted by Moo:
I like most of Georgette Heyer's detective novels. Which one are you dealing with?

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Why Shoot the Butler? I don't have demanding standards for characterisation in novels of that period/genre, but this failed even them.

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As I said, I like most of Georgette Heyer's detective novels. You have hit on an exception.

Moo
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
Firenze - you're right, supernatural policing in London does seem to be a Thing now. I quite like Paul Cornell who, like Ben Aaronovitch, has written for Doctor Who, though he's quite a bit grittier and with less humour. And I may never look at Neil Gaiman the same way again, after Paul Cornell used him as a character in Severed Streets!
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
Trying to finish up a few books I've had on the go in preparation for the release of Go Set A Watchman next week.

I'm hoping to polish off Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract and Livy's The Early History of Rome (books 1-5) before then.

I also recently started Rebecca Solnit's Wanderlust which is absolutley fantastic. As a bit of a peripatetic, I can identify with much of what she writes, which is done with dazzling clarity and the utmost beauty.
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
Happy Harper Lee day!!!

Just been out to pick up a copy of Go Set A Watchman. I haven't looked forward to a book's release this much since Paul and the Faithfulness of God.

I may have the avatar of a stern old baptist, but I've currently got a grin like a Cheshire cat.
 

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Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :
 
Just last night read V. Sackville-West's 'The Edwardians' -- and now I have to go right back and read it again. There was just too much to absorb in one pass.

Don't know why I'd missed it before -- it's been on my shelf for at least 15 years, maybe longer.
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Sipech:
Happy Harper Lee day!!!

Just been out to pick up a copy of Go Set A Watchman. I haven't looked forward to a book's release this much since Paul and the Faithfulness of God.

I may have the avatar of a stern old baptist, but I've currently got a grin like a Cheshire cat.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sipech:
I did suggest having it for the Ship's book club but the idea was poo-pooed.

Trudy, I have no idea how you got the time to finish it. I started reading yesterday lunchtime, on the commutes from and to work and a bit in bed as well, yet I'm only up to page 50.

Good reintroduction to the characters so far, but waiting for the plot to get underway.

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Remind me to add it to our programme when the paperback comes out. Ta.
 

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Posted by Jane R (# 331) on :
 
In the middle of reading Val McDermid's Northanger Abbey. I don't usually go for Austen pastiches - but this, this is what Bridget Jones' Diary should have been like. The characters are recognisable modern versions of Austen's originals and the dialogue fairly sparkles.
 

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Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :
 
I have been Harry Pottering for the last week or so and finished Deathly Hallows 10 minutes or so ago. I still find it fun though now I think I might move to heavier fare, perhaps a bit of history?
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
I've just finished Dion Fortune's The Winged Bull, partly because I thought it was about time I dipped into her works, as she's well known for her connections with ceremonial magic and the early Pagan movement.
Well, on the plus side I want to live in the London flat (above an Italian restaurant that feeds the occupants, and a bookshop, and with a roof garden), but most of the characters annoyed me. The "good wizard" really ought to have been more honest with the hero about what he was letting himself in for, and I wanted to slap Ursula, the wizard's sister.
And Dion Fortune head-hops like mad, which is quite annoying.
I don't think I'll be trying any more of her stories.
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Jane R:
In the middle of reading Val McDermid's Northanger Abbey. I don't usually go for Austen pastiches - but this, this is what Bridget Jones' Diary should have been like. The characters are recognisable modern versions of Austen's originals and the dialogue fairly sparkles.

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That sound interesting. I was avoiding it because I hated Death Comes to Pemberley another Austen take off by an author I usually enjoy. I'll try to find it in the library.

Lately books that I have reserved have been flooding in, so I might give myself some space before I do this.

Huia - drowning in a river of books
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Sipech:

Trudy, I have no idea how you got the time to finish it. I started reading yesterday lunchtime, on the commutes from and to work and a bit in bed as well, yet I'm only up to page 50.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Eigon:
I've just finished Dion Fortune's The Winged Bull … I don't think I'll be trying any more of her stories.

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"The Winged Bull" isn't her best - in fact, possibly her weakest - and not the one I'd have started with. I didn't like Murchison as a character, Astley is a thinly disguised Crowley, and Brangwyn is irritating. I'd recommend "The Secrets of Dr Taverner", a collection of short stories about an occult detective, written from the point of view of his assistant. You might like those better. Her writing style works better on short stories than on longer fiction.

"Moon Magic" is a sequel to "The Sea Priestess", but I don't think you'd particularly like either if you didn't care much for "The Winged Bull". "The Demon Lover" is essentially a love story with a supernatural twist - bad boy achieves redemption through the love of an innocent woman - and "Goatfoot God" is based on reincarnation. It’s quite interesting, but as with all of her novels there are a lot of tacit assumptions that you may find you don’t agree with at all, and they are quite baldly written. They’re also products of her time – they were written about a century ago and do feel a bit dated now. I first discovered them as a teenager, which with hindsight is probably a good age to read these at, as I loved them then, but anyone used to more modern and sophisticated literature may find them disappointing if they come to her novels as an adult.
 

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Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on :
 
I’m on an economy drive and back to downloading free stuff on Kindle. I’ve started ploughing through Seven Pillars of Wisdom (of Laurence of Arabia fame) and have to admit I’m finding it slightly hard going. Lots of trekking through the desert on a camel. I’m not finding it easy to keep track of who all the people are.
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
Probably easier to read on kindle. One of the stories my late father told was about visiting a local eccentric to find he was using The Seven Pillars of Wisdom as a door stop.
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
Thanks, Ariel - I think I'll look out for The Secrets of Dr Taverner.

Meanwhile I'm trying something else that I failed with the first time. Kim Stanley Robinson wrote a loosely linked trilogy about Orange County, California. I tried one of them, which began with a main character doing some guerilla archaeology - as an ex-archaeologist, the thought of this stupid idiot messing things up really annoyed me.
But this time I'm starting with The Wild Shore, which is set in a future Orange County after a nuclear war, and the descriptions of the new society that's taking shape (with all the mis-understandings of the society that went before) is really interesting.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
For a break after the seriousness and intense discussion around Go Set a Watchman I read Nick Hornby's Funny Girl. I always love a good Nick Hornby and thoroughly enjoyed this one; I imagine it might be even more enjoyable to British readers who could recognize more of what he's writing about and satirizing in BBC history (but a lot of it is universal).
 

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Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :
 
I’m having a run of excellent books at the moment. Star of the show is Scientific Lives by John Aubrey(1626-1697), a collection of scraps of biography of prominent 17th Century scientists, intended for publication but never completed. It sound very dry but is actually hilarious.

Aubrey liked documenting odd details about his subjects that no one else would have thought to mention and has a lovely turn of phrase. Isaac Barrow was “a strong man, but pale as the candle he studied by”. James Bovey was never shown any kindness by red-haired people. William Harvey encouraged marriage for love, as marriage for wealth resulted in “weak, fools and rickety children”.

Most appropriate for comment on the Ship is mathematical instrument maker Edmund Gunter who, on preaching at Christ Church, some were heard to say ”our Saviour never suffered so much since his passion as in that Sermon”. Aubrey’s only comment is Non omnia possumus omnes (We cannot all do everything).

It’s illuminating to read someone to whom the Civil War, Restoration and Great Fire of London were recent history. He doesn’t make judgements on protestant vs catholic or royalist vs roundhead, he just reports what is said about the individual.
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
I've finished Go Set A Watchman now. Well, I've finished what was printed. The version I had, and some others have mentioned, had the bottom quarter of some pages missing, most notably towards the end, including the penultimate page.

It is a great book, but it leaves you thinking some rather unpleasant thoughts. In an effort to be balanced, Harper Lee tries to get the reader to see things through the eyes of pro-segregationists.

I'm moving onto Moltmann's Theology of Hope next.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I am reading THE BRONTES by Juliet Barker. An enormous fat tome (an e-version will save your wrists) but every page is luscious.
 

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Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
Because it happened to be lying about (in the bathroom IIRC), I've just finished re-reading (again!) Do Not Pass Go: From the Old Kent Road to Mayfair by Tim Moore.

It's a hugely enjoyable, in places laugh-out-loud funny travelogue of the streets, stations and utilities on the British Monopoly board with a bit of history of the game (and of London) thrown in, which I would thoroughly recommend to anyone who's ever picked the "Advance to Mayfair" Chance card just after their next-door neighbour's put a hotel on it.


 

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Posted by Smudgie (# 2716) on :
 
Although I would never vote technology in preference to paper and ink, I have got to say that the big bonus to having a Kindle is that I can alternate easily between light reading and snobby reading - sometimes in the fraction of a second when I realise someone's going to ask what I'm reading?

But to be honest, I am totally loving reading Les Miserables. I'm making slow progress (mainly because I forget to carry my Kindle with me) but once I start reading I cannot put it down. For my "real" book, I'm re-reading The Eyre Affair and trying to resist the temptation to read bits aloud to the Smudgelet.
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
I like it because nobody can see the trashy covers.

And if someone really annoying starts bugging me about what I'm reading, I can flip it to something in Greek. Because I'm evil that way.
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Smudgie:
Although I would never vote technology in preference to paper and ink, I have got to say that the big bonus to having a Kindle is that I can alternate easily between light reading and snobby reading - sometimes in the fraction of a second when I realise someone's going to ask what I'm reading?

But to be honest, I am totally loving reading Les Miserables. I'm making slow progress (mainly because I forget to carry my Kindle with me) but once I start reading I cannot put it down. For my "real" book, I'm re-reading The Eyre Affair and trying to resist the temptation to read bits aloud to the Smudgelet.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sipech:

quote:

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Originally posted by Smudgie:
Although I would never vote technology in preference to paper and ink, I have got to say that the big bonus to having a Kindle is that I can alternate easily between light reading and snobby reading - sometimes in the fraction of a second when I realise someone's going to ask what I'm reading?

But to be honest, I am totally loving reading Les Miserables. I'm making slow progress (mainly because I forget to carry my Kindle with me) but once I start reading I cannot put it down. For my "real" book, I'm re-reading The Eyre Affair and trying to resist the temptation to read bits aloud to the Smudgelet.

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Tee hee hee. It reminds me of when I had a silent "out-snobbing" contest on a train with a fellow reader. The chap opposite me was looking quite smug reading his copy of Anna Karenina. Then I pulled out my copy of Herodotus' Histories. It may be slightly shorter but I figured it had a bigger geek value.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ArachnidinElmet:
Sipech, I just read that as Horrible Histories. That probably would not have had the same effect.

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No, probably not

Pomona, I hope you enjoy it. It's so long since I read it I would probably enjoy re-reading it. I remember really enjoying her
Lathe of Heaven as well as the Wizard of Earthsea books.

Huia
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
The Left Hand of Darkness and Wizard of Earthsea were serialised on BBC Radio 4 recently, and very well done, too.

I'm in the middle of The Lifer's Club, by Francis Pryor, who is rather better known as an archaeologist. He's written quite a bit of non-fiction about archaeology, and this is his first novel. His hero, Alan Cadbury is, of course, an archaeologist - a circuit dig director based in the Fens, who gets involved in a mystery surrounding an "honour killing" in a Turkish family in Leicester.
I used to be a circuit digger myself, for a couple of years, and the descriptions of the dig took me right back to the trowelling line! He even mentions, in flashback, a digger called "Wraith" - who I strongly suspect is a nod towards a real digger called Ghost, who I met back in the 1980s.
The plot is thickening in a very interesting way, and I will probably be looking for the sequel.
 

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Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :
 
What is it with The Catcher in the Rye?

I know we've discussed this before at some length but now it appears to be a set book over here in the second year of a Commerce degree - [?] - the protagonist is an unbearable, self-obsessed, arsehole of a character from a culture that the kids here can't possibly understand and that disappeared long ago. I read it way back when because it was sort of expected that one would but surely there are better books 64 years on that are more relevant? - Jayabrato Chatterjee's Last Train to Innocence, for instance.
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
I finished The Lifers' Club - and it was a very satisfying climax. The ends weren't tied up too neatly.
I'll be looking for the sequel to that.

And I may go looking for his non-fiction Seahenge, which is mentioned in the acknowledgements of another archaeological mystery I've just read. This one was by Elly Griffiths, the first in her series about archaeologist Ruth Galloway, The Crossing Places. It involves a sea henge, Iron Age bodies, and the landscape of North Norfolk. And the policeman she works with on the modern murder comes from Blackpool, where I spent a lot of time as a child.
I enjoyed it (though the ending here was maybe a bit too neat) and I'll be looking for her sequels.
It's nice to see a heroine who is middle aged and overweight for a change!
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
What is it with The Catcher in the Rye?

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I agree - it's horrible. Another one that often seems to come up on book lists and is rated as one of the greats is "Lord of the Flies", which has to be one of the most repulsive and depressing reads inflicted on anyone at school.
 

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Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :
 
I didn't read "Lord of the Flies" at school but there were copies around. I was aware that it was thought shocking that school boys without adult supervision would begin humiliating and murdering each other.

I can remember wondering what was shocking about that. It only reflected my experience of the school playground.

I found the book a bit overwritten.
 

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Posted by Fineline (# 12143) on :
 
I liked Lord of the Flies as a kid - the idea of kids being stuck on an island with no adult supervision was quite fascinating to me, and, like venbede, I figured it was probably realistic of what kids would do, if the playground was anything to go by.

I didn't read Catcher in the Rye till adulthood, and I was aware that lots of people hated it, but I actually found it incredibly amusing. He seemed very believable as an immature, sheltered teenager at a private school, trying to prove how tough/clever/superior he is, while really proving himself to be very naive and foolish. Trying to do 'grown up' things and finding himself completely out of his depth - the prostitute scene was great! I read it as sheer comedy.
 

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Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :
 
I've just finished The Broken Road the third and final volume of Patrick Leigh Fermor's account of his teenage trek across Europe. It was unfinished at his death and ends in mid sentence but has been polished up for publication by his editors. I find Fermor endlessly re-readable.

Encouraged in the genre of English-public-school-boys-wandering-round-the-Levant, I went on to read Alexander Kinglake's Eothen (which has a nice line in detached irony) and Robert Curzon's Visits to Monasteries in the Levant (which I really enjoyed).
 

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Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :
 

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Originally posted by Eigon:
I finished The Lifers' Club - and it was a very satisfying climax. The ends weren't tied up too neatly.
I'll be looking for the sequel to that.

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Originally posted by Fineline:
I tend to be the opposite - happy that my ereader hides the fact that I'm reading classics, because I don't want people to think I'm being pretentious or overly-intellectual, or to feel alienated from me! Plus, an actual paper book of Tolstoy is very heavy to carry around in one's bag!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:

quote:

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Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
What is it with The Catcher in the Rye?

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I agree - it's horrible. Another one that often seems to come up on book lists and is rated as one of the greats is "Lord of the Flies", which has to be one of the most repulsive and depressing reads inflicted on anyone at school.

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Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
Last night I finished my umpteenth reread of The Lord of the Rings ...

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So about six weeks ago I saw this and thought, "Hm." I hadn't read LOTR for many, many years, so I started ...

... And this morning I got as far as the crowning of King Elessar.

What an experience! Better than I remember it by far. What really impressed me this time round was the way Tolkien revels in landscapes. The language he uses to describe woodland, in particular, is luminous. So, just a couple of chapters to go. I'm thinking of re-reading The Once and Future King next, or if not next, then soon.
 

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Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :
 
I'm another one who enjoyed Catch-22 but that was over 40 years ago. I thought it was great BUT I have never wanted to reread it.
 

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Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :
 
I just saw an online definition that applies to me this evening - Book Hangover: when you can't start a new book because you're still living in the world of the last one.
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
I know that condition well. For me it only happens with books I really enjoyed. I think there's even an element of grief about it.

I have been known to start re-reading the book I just finished.

Huia
 

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Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :
 
ditto. to all that Huia said.

I often follow fiction with a good solid dose of History or Travel or something to avoid that issue - which is why I am currently rereading Ramachandra Guha's excellent A Corner of a Foreign Field - an Indian History of a British Sport - a sort of political history of cricket in India.

Fascinating stuff.
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
I went into one of the bigger branches of the library last week and was asked if I wanted to join their book discussion group which starts tomorrow. I am really looking forward to this as our smaller branch only has a less formal "discuss what books you've read" group meeting once a month. I really enjoy it, but it doesn't feed my passion for books.

Also it takes place just after the very useful "help technopeasants join the 21st century*" group so I can go from one to the other.

I love libraries

*OK, so the Library call this something else, but I think my name for it is more accurate.

Huia
 

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Posted by Jane R (# 331) on :
 
Just popping in to thank Eigon for recommending Elly Griffiths - I found a couple of her books in the library and enjoyed them in spite of the slightly annoying writing style (I am not a fan of historic/narrative present).

Something else I read and enjoyed recently was Marie Brennan's two-part series 'Warrior' and 'Witch' - it's a fantasy set in a world where women can become witches if their mothers perform a magical ritual after they are born, but before they get their souls. The unfortunate side-effect is that the ritual turns the baby into twins, one with the ability to work magic, one without... and the one without magical ability must be killed or neither will survive.

The heroine is a witch who has just completed her training and learned that her doppelganger survived; if she wants to go on living herself, she has to kill it. It could easily have developed into a Good Twin/Evil Twin conflict, but it doesn't. Along the way there are some interesting moral dilemmas and various Dead Horse issues are explored.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
I'm another one who enjoyed Catch-22 but that was over 40 years ago. I thought it was great BUT I have never wanted to reread it.

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Actually yes, now that you mention it, neither have I.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
This is a long-awaited day for me as a reader ... one of my favourite fantasy authors (possibly my very favourite), Robin Hobb, has just released her new book, Fool's Quest, the second volume in her latest trilogy. I read the first when it came out last year and then re-read it over the weekend to refresh my memory before reading the new book. And there's the new book, safely delivered to my e-reader while I slept. Already devoured four chapters before convincing myself to get up and shower this morning.

Is anything better than a long-awaited new book from an author you know you can trust to deliver a good story?
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
There is no joy like it. (And Lois McMaster Bujold has a new Vorkosigan novel coming out!!)
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
I can't help but note that a lot of my recent reading has contained some rather unsavoury language with regards to race.

I had expected it with Go Set A Watchman, but later on I have, after years of encouragement from others, begun reading P.G. Wodehouse with Thank You, Jeeves which includes a scene where Bertie Wooster escapes a sticky situation by blacking-up and pretending to be part of a minstrel show!

Then this morning, as I was progressing through Darwin's The Descent of Man again cropped one of n-words.

It's maddening and not a little embarrassing when someone on the bus is reading over my shoulder.
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
I've been meaning to get round to reading something by Octavia Butler for ages - I keep reading about how good she is, and her books almost never come up second hand (which is a good indication that people who buy her books hang on to them). I finally found a copy of Kindred at Forbidden Planet, and I started reading it last night in bed.
I had to force myself to put it down at about 1am! What a good writer! What a compelling story (time travel to the ante bellum South involving a black woman from 1976 and her husband).
I'll be looking out for whatever else of hers I can find.
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:
Is anything better than a long-awaited new book from an author you know you can trust to deliver a good story?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Garasu:
Robin Hobb I've always found a real effort to read (and have just given up).

Strangely, Megan Lindholm's books I find quote compelling!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Kitten:
I just finished 'The Shepherd's Crown'. A fitting swan song, tissues were needed.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I just picked up a used copy of Period Piece by Gwen Raverat. She was a grand-daughter of Charles Darwin, and this seems to be an innocuous memoir of life in the 1880s. Has anyone ever read it?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
Yesterday I finished a reread of Kim - I wonder how many times I have read it over the years?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
I've been Delderfielding again! Today I finished a reread of To Serve Them All May Days still as good, still as mushy - but I like well written mushy.

Gazing at my fiction shelf wondering what to take next and chose an early Le Carré Call For The Dead which I was enjoying immediately.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
As I recall To Serve Them All My Days is set at a boys' boarding school. Is there a great deal of school stuff, or does the plot revolve more around the teacher-protagonist's personal life?

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quote:

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Originally posted by betjemaniac:

I agree with Albertus about A Murder of Quality - sort of the missing third corner of the Delderfield-Molesworth-George Smiley triangle.

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Slightly surprised to discover that To Serve Them All My Days was written as late as 1972: if you'd asked me I'd have put it, from its style, in the late 40s (or indeed even the 30s, were it not for the fact that it ends during the Second World War).
 

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Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I just finished Só por hoje — e para sempre ("Just for Today — and Forever") by the late Brazilian rock singer Renato Russo. This book, which was published almost 20 years after his death, contains the diaries that he wrote when he was in a rehab clinic in 1993, as well as his answers to the exercises he did for the Twelve Step Programme: "Describe three situation where you didn't feel in control, and how you dealt with that", that kind of things.

I admit that I'm a big fan of the group Legião Urbana of which he was the frontman, so that obviously colours my reading, but I found that this book gave an interesting insight both of what goes on in such a clinic and in the mind of someone with obvious above-average intelligence trying to deal with his addiction. I enjoyed reading it, it gave me a lot to think about.

The title "Just for Today" obviously refers to the Twelve Step Programme, and became the brilliant song Só por hoje. This is one of a couple of songs he wrote about this experience.
 

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Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :
 
I am shocked!

Towards the end of A Murder of Quality I decided I'd follow it with Edmund Crispin's wonderful The Glimpses of the Moon but when I looked at my shelves I didn't have it! I must have let one of my brother's take it from my dad's collection when we were clearing the house.

Oh well, one more for the list.
 

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Posted by betjemaniac (# 17618) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
Oddly I just got A Murder of Quality off the shelf as I returned Call for the Dead

I have neither read nor even heard off Francis Brett Young but shall have a scout through my online secondhand book supplier and see what I can find.

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Originally posted by TurquoiseTastic:
And although Moore's art style isn't quite my cup of tea it's certainly got something about it.

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quote:

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Dafyd: Clarice Lispector. Should I read her? If so, where to start?

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Originally posted by LeRoc:
Now reading The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. It's interesting to see an English writer describe 17ᵗʰ century Amsterdam. Most of the time, she seems to hit the nail on the head.

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quote:

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Originally posted by LeRoc:
Now reading The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. It's interesting to see an English writer describe 17ᵗʰ century Amsterdam. Most of the time, she seems to hit the nail on the head.

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quote:

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Sipech: Gosh, I didn't realise you were that old!

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Hehe, me and my TARDIS

I have the feeling that she gets 'Dutchness' right, and that isn't easy to do for a foreigner. So I'm rather impressed by that.

There are one or two places where she gets it wrong, and those stick out like a sore thumb a bit, but overall I feel she's doing a rather good job of it.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Just started Death and Mr. Pickwick by Stephen Jarvis. This is not going to be one of those mile-a-minute action-packed plots, I can tell. But I am enjoying it.
 

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Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :
 
I'm reading The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua at the moment, the book version of web comic 2d goggles. The fictional stories of real life friends and colleagues Ada Lovelace, mathematician and daughter of Byron, and Charles Babbage, engineer and inventor of proto-computer: the difference engine with occasional appearances by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Queen Victoria.

It is a thing of wonder. I'm reading it a chapter at a time with other books inbetween to try and string out the experience. The illustrations are a steampunk joy and I'd read the footnotes by themselves. You may have gathered, I'm really enjoying this book

There is a BBC4 'Digital Season' documentary on Ada Lovelace on Thursday, interviewing Sydney Padua, for anyone interested.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Fell off of Death and Mr. Pickwick about 150 pages in. If the plot does not show up by now, the book is not written right. Far, far too many digressions; the author packed in all his research and neglects to keep the plot (if there is any) moving. It is like reading The Lord of the Rings only with The Silmarillion blended in.
 

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Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on :
 
Recently finished The Man of Feeling by Mackenzie. I very much enjoyed it. But I think I must be a horrible person because I laughed and laughed in places where I suspect the author may not have meant me to do this.

It was somehow like a much, much nicer and sweeter version of Candide. Not unlike Forrest Gump, in a way. I would be sure that Voltaire had intended a merciless spoof of it, if Candide hadn't been written 12 years earlier.

[ 15. September 2015, 16:09: Message edited by: TurquoiseTastic ]
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
Brenda life's too short to read books you don't enjoy.

I'm meant to be reading The Madonnas of Leningrad for my book group but it didn't look interesting so I've misplaced it. (I don't do it on purpose, but if I don't like a library book it's the most likely one I will return late0.

Has anyone read it?

Huia
 

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Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Huia:
Brenda life's too short to read books you don't enjoy.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Twilight:

quote:

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Originally posted by Huia:
Brenda life's too short to read books you don't enjoy.

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Yes and there are far too many good books that you may not have time for.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sipech:
But how do you know which is which?

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Again, Amazon can be your friend. Look up, say, "Life of Pi," and find someone who also hated it for the same reasons, then check his other reviews to see if he likes your sort of thing. Now you have someone who's recommendations you can trust.

I use this thread, too, ignoring all the genres I don't much like and finding people whose taste is similar to mine. For example, I would be happy to have Welease Woderwick choose all my books for me. He's never steered me wrong.

[ 16. September 2015, 14:21: Message edited by: Twilight ]
 

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Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by LeRoc:
I'm reading A Rainha Ginga ('Queen Ginga'; I don't know if the book has been translated) by Agualusa, arguably the best Angolan writer of this time.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
I'm at the stage of life when I don't often read new books but take great comfort rereading ones I've read before - not necessarily for anything to do with the plot but for the sheer joy of superb writing. I once told a Marxist friend about my love of Kipling and was treated to a mini rant about what a terrible old imperialist he was - and he may well have been but he was also a superb observer and writer.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Twilight:
...I would be happy to have Welease Woderwick choose all my books for me. He's never steered me wrong.

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What a terrible responsibility!

OR



What an amazing privilege!

* * * *

I'm not quite sure how Kipling is viewed here but certainly there are a fair number of his books on the shelves in the bookshops I frequent. I shall see if I can find a tame English teacher and ask about it.
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
Still ploughing my way through Albert Schweitzer's The Quest of the Historical Jesus. Not at all what I had expected. I've been reading it for a fortnight now and am only just over half way.

It has this curious property whereby you can read for a good hour and yet not seem to make any progress.

Das Kapital was a bit like that. Maybe it's something to do with German writers...
 

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Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 
A friend of mine wrote a dissertation on some aspect of eighteenth century German history. She said the contemporary documents were written in a much clearer style than the modern ones.

Moo
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
I'm guessing your friend wasn't reading a lot of Hegel?

 

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Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Sipech:
I'm guessing your friend wasn't reading a lot of Hegel?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I forget whether it's in this one or the next one Birds, Beasts & Relatives that Mrs. Durrell urges Gerry to mention that she is a widow, "because you never know what people might think." I too wonder what they all lived on.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sipech:
In the mean time, I shall embark upon a much lighter affair: Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm. I've had some trepidation about this, as I'm a big fan of Thomas Hardy and I fear her work may destroy some of my favourite works of fiction.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jemima the 9th:
There are a lot of things you notice as an adult, and wonder about - where did they get all their money? Where was Pater Durrell? Isn't Larry a bit of a tit? It's all rather romantic about the peasants, and all a bit colonial in spirit, if you see what I mean.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
Having been a bit under the weather for a few days I wanted something easy and fun and have revisited The Old Bailey in the company of Horace Rumpole - there was a problem with that in that some bits are side-achingly funny and my stomach wasn't really ready for it but I survived - full marks to John Mortimer.

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Rumpole is perfect under-the-weather reading!

I've just finished Agatha Christie's Endless Night. If you can reconcile yourself to all the anti-Romani prejudice voiced by some of the characters (and I'm afraid, I suspect, by the author), then it's a thrilling story, even though the first half is almost all set-up. And when the plot starts getting twisty -
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
I'm in the middle of the Spiritwalker trilogy by Kate Elliot, which has that wonderful "just-one-more-chapter" thing where you suddenly realise it's midnight!
It's a wild and heady mixture of Regency romance, with magic, airships, a city in the Caribbean, that world's version of Napoleon, the spirit world which only a few characters can access, the Wild Hunt, intelligent feathered dinosaur lawyers, Phoenecian spies, and a history which sends the inhabitants of the Malian Empire into Celtic lands, resulting in lots of mixed race characters. And zombies - well, sufferers from the salt plague, but they're basically zombies.
Epic fantasy as I've never seen it done before, and it's great fun!
 

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Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Cold Comfort Farm is absolutely delightful.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I am halfway through The Dean's Watch by Elizabeth Goudge. ... It is also (possibly because of the setting and characters, Victorian England and clergymen in a cathedral town) overtly Christian in nature. Is this a consistent feature of Goudge's work?

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quote:

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Norman Douglas has a considerable reputation--as the author of South Wind. It is a book like no other. His more excitable admirers count Mr. Douglas among those few writers each of whom is in a class consisting of one person. For myself, I think that South Wind has the fault of monotony, and that the second half is much inferior to the first. But at worst it is a better book than They Went, which in half an hour dangerously lowered my temperature to sub-normal. Old Calabria, mainly descriptive, I prefer to either of the chief fictional works. Mr. Douglas's creative method is to get an idea or let an idea get him. He then says (I surmise): "That's an idea! And it is. He then says: "That's a very good idea!" And it is. Finally he says: "I can make that idea into a book." And he does.

But in my opinion he is apt to be too content with his idea. When he says that he will make the idea into a book he does not give sufficient importance to the word make. An idea must be made; it will not make itself: it will only expand itself or nullify itself into a series of similar cells. The process of making an idea includes thrashing it, hammering it, tearing it to pieces, putting it together again, diluting it, draining it, shaping it, heating it, hardening it, chipping bits off it, adding bits to it, colouring it, and generally transforming it so that its own father wouldn't recognise it. There is more difference between an idea raw and the finished, fashioned product than there is between a musical comedy star when she gets out of bed in the morning and a musical comedy star when she prances at night on to the stage in full, carefully-contrived glory of complexion, coiffure, and costume.

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quote:

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I'm in the middle of the Spiritwalker trilogy by Kate Elliot, which has that wonderful "just-one-more-chapter" thing where you suddenly realise it's midnight!

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I'm halfway through it now (having bought it on your recommendation) and I agree; it's great fun.

There are so many good fantasy books around at the moment I'm spoilt for choice... a wonderful situation to be in.
 

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Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on :
 
On an economy drive and only reading stuff I can download for free, I have just finished the Phantom of the Opera (in French). I think I must have read it when I was a teenager but didn’t remember it all.

My main memories of the story come from the musical, but the book is actually quite different. A very enjoyable read at all events.
 

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Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :
 
Over the weekend, for a little light Hallowe'en reading I read Susan Hill's The Small Hand.



It's not quite in the same league as The Woman in Black, but it's an extremely well told story, very difficult to put down.
 

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Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :
 
Forgot any Halloween reading. Normally do The Call of Cthulhu in one sitting.

Am trundling through Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise which is rather good, even if it is a bit politically right wing. If you work in financial forecasting, it's well worth a look.
 

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Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

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Sipech: Am trundling through Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise which is rather good, even if it is a bit politically right wing.

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quote:

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Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
On an economy drive and only reading stuff I can download for free, I have just finished the Phantom of the Opera (in French). I think I must have read it when I was a teenager but didn’t remember it all.

My main memories of the story come from the musical, but the book is actually quite different. A very enjoyable read at all events.

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quote:

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Originally posted by LeRoc:

quote:

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Sipech: Am trundling through Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise which is rather good, even if it is a bit politically right wing.

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That's interesting, because Silver identifies as a Democrat (although he separates his personal political stands from his statistical work).

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quote:

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Sipech: YMMV but I would still class most Democrats as a bit right wing.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
Wasn't there one set in the Channel Islands, called Island Magic which I loved?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:

"Green Dolphin Country" is a powerful and more adult novel that is worth reading (a happy-go-lucky young man from the Channel Islands, friendly with two sisters, emigrates to New Zealand and writes back asking one of the sisters, who he secretly had warm feelings for, to come out and be his wife. Unfortunately, he puts the wrong sister's name in the letter, and what follows is the story of their marriage and what happens next...)

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LeRoc: I recently bought All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr. I more or less grabbed it at random from the airport bookstore while running to catch my flight. So far, the first pages have been good.

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I liked the description of Saint Malo during the War. The salty closeness of the sea, the French oldness of it, the claustrophoby behind those thick walls … I didn't care much about the characters or the plot though.

Today I bought Meursalt, contre-enquete by Kamel Daoud. Let's see.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
Having read and loved some of Geraldine Brooks's other books (March, Year of Wonders), I picked up her novel about King David, The Secret Chord, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's the story of David as told by the prophet Nathan, and I found it engrossing. Biblical historical fiction is not often done really really well, but this is one I would add to my collection of favourites in that genre.
 

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Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :
 
I just started Landmarks by Robert MacFarlane. It's a collection about language and place - the author has over the years collected lots of place-words, in lots of the various languages and dialects of the British Isles, related to landscape, nature and weather. The blurb describes it as 'both a field guide to the literature he loves ..., and a 'word-hoard' ... we come to realize that words, well used, are not just a means to describe landscape, but also a way to know it and to love it.' I've only read the introductory chapter so far, but it's exactly the sort of beautiful nerdy read I love, and his writing is gorgeous.

He wrote about collecting words as he came across them in random notebooks here and there, and I suddenly was reminded of our dear departed shipmate ken - I remember giving him a lift to Greenbelt a couple of times, and he had a notebook with him where he would write down all the various flowers, grasses and birds he saw in the verges on the way there. And then as I read I thought how much he would like this book, and then I felt a bit sad
 

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Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 
Just read Rose Macaulay's The World my Wilderness . Beautifully written, slightly surreal (at least, seventy years on) and morally serious. I think it will stay with me.
 

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Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :
 
I was chatting with a Swiss friend recently and found he'd never heard of Johann Rudolf Wyss's The Swiss Family Robinson, which shocked me a bit, so I picked it up to reread. I've now nearly finished it and I now feel I have to congratulate him on avoiding what is really a terrible travesty of a book chock full of pious platitudes and appalling geographical and biological anomalies!

But it is still okay as a bit of fun - it was written for kids and at that it is okay but still a bit over pious for my taste.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
As I have tangentified the inquiry thread too much, I've nipped over here. I've just re-read "Red Moon and Black Mountain" by Joy Chant. The invented world descriptions, the peoples and their lives are brilliant - so much thought and knowledge in there. The plotting is intricate and skillful - things that didn't seem important at the beginning turn out to be critical at the end. The character development works well, and the way that she sustains the language style is impressive. I liked the way that each of the children had their own essential part of the story.

Up to the major battle, I'm with it all the way.

But, I realise that it is one, possibly the first of the books that made me unhappy about the emphasis on blood. Specifically, royal blood. It's usually in pagan contexts (which is odd). There seems to be an idea that, even in a war where thousands of the ordinary folk have spilt their blood on the ground, things can only be resolved by the one spill of the blood of someone with a special heritage. And it must be spilled willingly. Only, in this book, the character doesn't have the choice. He could say no, but he has been Chosen, and herded down a funnel to a place where he can only say yes. And this herding has been done by the agents of someone who is identified in the book as God.

This is not like our world, where God does the necessary Himself, and when he needs someone's choice, there is genuine freedom to say no. (We assume.)

And, being of a republican bent, I am not too keen on the idea of there being some special property of royal blood - unless it's haemophilia or porphyria, of course. Why does that idea hang around in literature. And why the idea about sacrifice? Once for all, wasn't it?

[ 12. December 2015, 17:08: Message edited by: Penny S ]
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 

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Originally posted by Penny S:
And, being of a republican bent, I am not too keen on the idea of there being some special property of royal blood - unless it's haemophilia or porphyria, of course. Why does that idea hang around in literature. And why the idea about sacrifice? Once for all, wasn't it?

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Because of the ancient idea that the king is the leader of the land, and personifies it. You'll find that exemplified in the Fisher King, who is wounded and the land suffering along with him until he can be healed. The king was expected to be ready to give his life for the kingdom if necessary. There have also been ancient traditions where the real king would step aside for a bit while a surrogate was treated royally then sacrificed at the end of it for the good of the land. Blood is the life force. It had to be shed to give life, and healing and fertility to the land, or to appease the gods and atone. That sort of thing.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
It is also well articulated in The King Must Die by Mary Renault.
It's been some years since I read it, but as I recall Red Moon, Black Mountain was definitely a post-Tolkien fantasy. It could never have been written, without LOTR. And you will recall that in LOTR it was Frodo who had to lose things, so that others might have them.
I believe you could prove by analyzing the text that Chant had closely read both Tolkien and Renault. This is not necessarily a bad thing; every fantasy writing of that period and many years after is either following Tolkien or rebelling against him.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Oh, and as to Swiss Family -- there is a name for this phenomenon. Jo Walton coined it. You were visited by the Suck Fairy. With her magic wand she tapped a book that you enjoyed thoroughly in youth, and suddenly it sucks. All the idiocies, contradictions, plot holes, and limp characters are now painfully visible.
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
I found that when I finally tracked down and bought a copy of Aunt Robbo by Ann Scott-Moncrief

Huia
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 

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Originally posted by Firenze:
Kindle, paper, vellum, papyrus, clay tablet... What are you reading?

Firenze
Heaven Host

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Originally posted by Albertus:

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Originally posted by betjemaniac:

I agree with Albertus about A Murder of Quality - sort of the missing third corner of the Delderfield-Molesworth-George Smiley triangle.

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Slightly surprised to discover that To Serve Them All My Days was written as late as 1972: if you'd asked me I'd have put it, from its style, in the late 40s (or indeed even the 30s, were it not for the fact that it ends during the Second World War).

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Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
On the same sort of lines, have you ever read Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty? Beautifully written but all the main characters are complete and utter bastards!

Irredeemably so.

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Oh, and as to Swiss Family -- there is a name for this phenomenon. Jo Walton coined it. You were visited by the Suck Fairy. With her magic wand she tapped a book that you enjoyed thoroughly in youth, and suddenly it sucks. All the idiocies, contradictions, plot holes, and limp characters are now painfully visible.

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Originally posted by Penny S:
I know where the king dying concept comes from - and have you read Naomi Mitchison's Corn King and Spring Queen? That's in my re-read pile! Maybe I shouldn't. Is it before or after Renault? And all those bog bodies in the real world. It doesn't mean it's an idea that needs to be used now as if it means something.

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Originally posted by Sipech:
I've just finished Daphne Du Maurier's The House on the Strand which was entertaining in parts, but didn't knock my socks off.

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Tch. We never actually see that on screen/page. We only hear it alleged, by embittered siblings.

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
In the circles I move in there is a considerable interest in Susan, and there's a good deal of material of one kind or another. Neil Gaiman wrote a short story about her (only for the strong of stomach).

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Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:
Some people interested in "the problem of Susan" may enjoy reading or re-reading this Purgatory thread from several years ago.

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Originally posted by venbede:
If a tutor is due to give a tutorial, it is his job to do so. He can't just tell the student to bog off when he sees them.

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Originally posted by QLib:
How to be Good by Nick Hornby.

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
We never actually see that on screen/page. We only hear it all

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