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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Heaven: Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them
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Marama
Shipmate
# 330
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Eigon:
Gosh, I was an innocent child! I was one of those teenage girls who swooned over The Flight of the Heron without noticing any homoeroticism at all,
Well I don't think I noticed at the time either, so you're not the only innocent - but re-reading it now (it's still on my bookshelf) it is pretty clear.
I found Nenya's comment about the attractiveness of homoeroticism to many women interesting. All I can add is - isn't human sexuality complex?
Posts: 910 | From: Canberra | Registered: May 2001
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
I read and loved The Flight of the Heron when I was in primary school and loved it. I didn't notice any homo-eroticism but I wouldn't have, at that age.
I read my father's copy; he recommended it!
Next time I visit my parents I will swipe it and re-read it.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
I'm reading Tony Hawks' "One Hit Wonderland", the third of his books of adventures-doing-silly-things-for-a-ridiculous-bet (following "Round Ireland with a Fridge" and "Playing the Moldovans at Tennis"). I loved the first two, and to be honest to start with I thought this third one was going to be a bit disappointing - it's a bit of a slow starter. But then the last two sections I've read have had me laughing out loud, and the bit with him wearing a pixie costume in the airport had me crying with laughter. I still think (with a few chapters to go) that this is the weakest of the three, but as a light and untaxing read to cheer me up it's been great.
The bet, I should add, is that having had a minor hit in the UK charts in the late 80s, he can't have another hit record anywhere in the world. Cue trips to Nashville, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Netherlands to try his luck.
[ 08. September 2016, 20:51: Message edited by: Jack the Lass ]
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
I'm currently reading Michael Smith's Autobiography 'At Cross Purposes'. Michael was Director of Music at Llandaff, 1970s-1990s, turbulent times in the life of the Cathedral. A sad and sorry tale of personalities which do not gel, of stubbornness, intractability and collective heads in the sand.
The author complains of all the problems he encounters, but of course none of them are allowed to rest at his own door - he is always the one sinned against, or so you are meant to believe. 6 of one and at least a quarter of a dozen of the other, I reckon...
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
I'm reading Anthony Powell's Dance to Music of Time and I've nearly finished volume 3 An Acceptance World.
Very mannered prose style and a socially limited cast (we meet at the Ritz, well I mean where else do you go?) but I'm finding it very readable.
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
I'm reading Zenna Henderson's Ingathering: The Complete People Stories. The People are human-appearing, but supernaturally gifted aliens who have lived on earth since the late 1800s. They aren't very scientificly realistic (interstellar distances covered in a single lifetime, aliens who can interbreed with humans with no help) but very good reading none-the-less. They are also very spiritual without being overtly religious or Christian.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Ooh, is that a new publication? I don't think I have my old collection, or even if it was complete, anyway. (There was a cover on one of the paperbacks that derived, for some reason, from 'American Gothic', which I did not know at the time, but did know was not entirely appropriate.)
[ 15. September 2016, 22:03: Message edited by: Penny S ]
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
I don't think it's too new, I got it used on Amazon. After checking the book, it was printed in 2011.
If you don't have it though it's worth getting because it contains a People story printed nowhere else before this. I am eagerly awaiting getting to it. It's called Michal Without.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Henderson was a great writer, who combined a Christian world view with distinctly American settings and viewpoints. And she was purely SF. She has always been admired by the knowledgable, and deserves to be more widely appreciated.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
When I used to give blood, I always followed something from one of her not-People stories, and prayed for the receiver. I don't expect it made as much difference as in the story, though.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
Does anyone remember the TV film of The People? I think William Shatner was in it as a doctor. That's what led me on to find the original stories.
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I remember it - and I keep hoping it will turn up again.
I have now ordered the book. Not cheap. But also not via Amazon. And new, so the money goes to the right place. Some second hand ones are exorbitantly priced.
I had the impression that Henderson was, rather than Christian, Jewish. The theme of ingathering, and the use of the expression "The Name" for God seemed to be indicating that.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
No, born into Mormonism and later a Methodist. Can anyone recall the name of the story with one character named Eliada?
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
She had some quite Christian-orientated stories in a collection called "The Anything Box" -"Food for all Flesh" and "Stevie and the Dark" come to mind.
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I am surprised the miniseries people haven't glommed onto her work -- some of the stories would be ideal for the screen. (Her and Georgette Heyer, another natural for drama.)
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
No, born into Mormonism and later a Methodist. Can anyone recall the name of the story with one character named Eliada?
It was "Tell Us a Story". It's in the anthology "Ingathering".
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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Tukai
Shipmate
# 12960
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Posted
The funniest book I have read this year is "A man you can bank on" by Derek Hansen. A small Australian town makes good use of a million dollar stash of cash that big-city thieves have buried nearby. But when those thieves get out of jail 10 years later, mayhem ensues comparable to that in the best of Carl Hiassen's Florida capers.
And I can also commend the series of spy novels by Stella Rimington, featuring a female agent of MI5. Since Rimington rose through the ranks to become head of MI5, it is not surprising that her depiction of interagency rivalries and patronising male bosses sounds authentic. What is more of a surprise is the quality of her writing and plotting.
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A government that panders to the worst instincts of its people degrades the whole country for years to come.
Posts: 594 | From: Oz | Registered: Sep 2007
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
I'm not a big fan of poetry, on the whole - I just find it really very daunting. But I have just finished a beautiful book of poetry, "Nort Atlantik Drift" by Robert Alan Jamieson, which is a series of short poems in Shetland dialect, with commentary and translation in English. The poems actually work pretty well in English, but I was pleased at how much of the dialect I was able to get (I read them first). I found them really beautiful and profound yet also very simple - musings on island life, seafaring, travelling, home, history. My only complaint about the book was that the photographs which accompanied every poem were a bit grainy. Shetland is so beautiful I really wanted to see it in all its glory.
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I have spent a satisfying couple of days renewing acquaintance with familiar Henderson stories, and going on to meet new ones. One to go.
She doesn't seem to be very sympathetic to the cultish end of the Christian spectrum, does she?
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I've been enjoying rediscovering Tove Jansson's Moomintroll books, as a pleasant, delightful bit of escapism. I just bought myself "Moominpappa at Sea", which I hadn't read before.
If you think the Moomin stories are simple little stories for children, then "Moominpappa at Sea" will change your mind about that. Not only is it a creepy and uncomfortable read, it's also a rather adult portrayal of the effects of claustrophobia, isolation and adversity on a tiny group on a small island. I carried on reading it because I needed to know how it ended, but can't say it was either light or pleasant. It had the ring of truth about how perception can be distorted into obsession and delusion.
The bits where the trees and rocks could be seen moving of their own accord, and how nothing seemed to thrive on the island, just added to the general flavour of, for want of a better word, malaise. I hadn't seen the Moomin world as dark before, and it doesn't strike me as a children's book. I don't know that I'd want to read it again.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
Having read Finn Family Moomintroll as a child and liked it, I thought I'd try the others a few years back.
The earlier Comet in Moominland seems to me to be about imminent nuclear destruction. I didn't enjoy it.
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
Even as a child, I picked up a constant undercurrent of melancholy in the Moomin books - but I did like Moominmama in Moominpapa at Sea, painting a mural on the lighthouse wall that she could disappear into.
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
We read the Moomin books when we were children - my next sister down fell in love with them and I picked them up after her. She was convinced that the Groke was Ted Heath. This was in the middle of the three day week power cuts of the 1970s, but having just googled, the similarity is completely lost in the film version.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
I've been reading Mary Roach's Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal. It's fairly light hearted, yet graphic at the same time. I must confess to feeling rather queasy on the commute to work yesterday while with reading about autocoprophagy.
![[Projectile]](graemlins/puke2.gif)
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I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
I am thinking of having another go at Kafka. I tried reading The Trial ages ago and gave up, I think partly on account of the suckiness of the (French) translation I read it in.
Who’s read it? Which translation did you like? Which one should I avoid like the plague?
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
I am thinking of having another go at Kafka. I tried reading The Trial ages ago and gave up, I think partly on account of the suckiness of the (French) translation I read it in.
Who’s read it? Which translation did you like? Which one should I avoid like the plague?
No idea on French translations. I read Idris Parry's English translation. It was still tough going, but mainly because of the lack of the overly long paragraphs (a single paragraph could be up to 3 pages) but I understand that was a feature of Kafka's writing, not the translation or editing.
If you've not read any Kafka before, then The Trial is possibly diving in at the deep end. Have you read any of his short stories? In The Penal Colony and The Metamorphosis are excellent.
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I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
I've read the short stories but gave up on The Trial.
No problem with English translations. I picked it up in French at the time because it was in a second-hand book shop (but I guess there was a reason the original owner didn't want it anymore ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif) ).
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Rent my holiday home in the South of France
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
The Trial was required reading for a 20th Century Literature course I did as part of my teacher training about 40 years ago. It made a big impact on me, but I never got into anything else Kafka wrote.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
Books make great gifts... yes indeed and as a child I did not consider Christmas or birthday to be complete without books figuring as gifts. Yesterday I received a belated birthday present from my sister. Passages of Time by Mary Edgeworth David, the daughter of a distinguished geologist here.
Certainly a world is inside it. She was born in nineteenth century, and lived in several places I knew of near me here now. Her father's house was on the road named after him in Hornsby and I passed it on the way to my high school in that road.
There is a fascinating account of her childhood in the BLue Mountains here, of learning to drive and acting as a driver in WW I. The book has a well drawn picture of life in a world very different today. You may find it in a library but the book is out of print and I just bought the last copy in Australia as a present for my brother.
A glimpse of a world quite different to today.
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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.
Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
For me the most exciting book news of the week is that Arundhati Roy's second novel will be published next year - I think it is likely to be a must-buy.
It reminds me that I really must re-read The God of Small Things, a staggering work.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
I mentioned Edgeworth David and his house. His daughter's description made me think it was another street. Indeed. Some misinformation was common among local peoples when I went to school in area. It should have been Burdett Street for anyone interested. His daughter was born 1888 and died at around 100 years.
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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.
Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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Barnabas Aus
Shipmate
# 15869
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Posted
I have read Mary Edgeworth David's biography of her father, but not Passages of Time. Prof. David Branagan has also written a superb biography of TWED, who is revered in our district for his geological work on the coalfields and for his relationship with the miners in the tunnelling corps on the Western Front. I think he was only the second private citizen in NSW to be accorded a State funeral, after Henry Lawson.
Posts: 375 | From: Hunter Valley NSW | Registered: Sep 2010
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
Unfortunately, Barnabas, you may have to borrow from a library. My sister bought my copy knowing I would enjoy it. My brother was very interested in it too. I spent quite a bit of time tracking it down yesterday and finally found a second hand copy in hopefully good condition. The only copy available in Australia. I snapped it up and have had it sent directly to him.
They lived when she was young at Woodford in the Blue Mountains and her descriptions tallied with time spent by me a bit higher up. A big dose of nostalgia.
[ 06. October 2016, 23:14: Message edited by: Lothlorien ]
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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.
Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
I just downloaded Garth Nix's new Old Kingdom novel, Goldenhand, to my Nook and have started reading it. Very enjoyable so far.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
This morning I finished the ninth [and final?] book in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series, The Days of Anna Madrigal. Even more bitter-sweet than any of the previous stories but ultimately, I think, triumphant. I finished at just before 8am and it is now nearly 11am and I am still teary eyed!
I love my Samsung Tablet with its Kindle app.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
I enjoyed a famtasy "The Goblin Emperor" by Katharine Addison. It's all about court politics but a gripping yarn. I think someone may have recommended it on ship.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
I've only just got round to reading How the Marquis Got His Coat Back by Neil Gaiman. It's a tiny thing, a companion to Neverwhere (in which the Marquis loses his magnificent coat), and it is wonderful. It reveals more about the Marquis de Carabas's past, and introduces the Elephant of Elephant and Castle (characters are named for London Underground stations, so there is an Earl at Earl's Court, and an Angel called Islington), and the sinister Shepherds of Shepherds Bush.
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
For my own nefarious purposes, I have been ISO of a 19th century novel with certain specific qualities. And, eureka! I have found it: Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert, published 1862. Has anybody read it? He is better known for Madame Bovary, which I have read, but which is entirely different in tone and subject. I shall not have time to read it until 2017.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Eigon:
I've only just got round to reading How the Marquis Got His Coat Back by Neil Gaiman. It's a tiny thing, a companion to Neverwhere (in which the Marquis loses his magnificent coat), and it is wonderful. It reveals more about the Marquis de Carabas's past, and introduces the Elephant of Elephant and Castle (characters are named for London Underground stations, so there is an Earl at Earl's Court, and an Angel called Islington), and the sinister Shepherds of Shepherds Bush.
My first encounter with Neverwhere was on tv (which I think predated the book, but could well be wrong), in my head the Marquis de Carabas & the Angel Islington will always look like Patterson Joseph & Peter Capaldi (and vice versa).
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'If a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres' - Kafka
Posts: 1887 | From: the rhubarb triangle | Registered: Sep 2012
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
You're quite right, ArachnidinElmet - Patterson Joseph was brilliant as the Marquis, and although Benedict Cumberbatch has a marvellous voice, he still wasn't quite right as the Angel Islington on radio.
I understand How the Marquis got his Coat Back is going to be dramatised for radio this Christmas - not sure who's going to be in it.
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
Just finished Jim Crace's Quarantine. I expected better from a book that won the Whitbread Novel Award.
It just petered out into nothingness. The promise of the opening was left wilted in the Judean desert, the life drained from it, just as the life was drained from the characters. It was all a bit 'meh'.
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I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
In a break in my Harry Potter-athon after Volume 4 I am re-reading Gita Mehta's entrancing A River Sutra about a semi-retired bureaucrat running a Government Rest House by the Narmada River in Central India and the strange characters he encounters. It really is a fabulous read, I don't know why I have left it so long before reading it again.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
I just finished Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon, which is the eighth book in the Outlander series.
The adventures of Claire and Jamie continue during the time of the American Revolution. They interact with George Washington, Benedict Arnold and other historical figures. Meanwhile, back in twentieth century Scotland, daughter Brianna and her children and husband have their own problems to deal with.
So, I'm ready for the ninth book! Bring it on!
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Yes, this is one reason I could do with a time machine. I doubt we'll see book nine until 2019--a year earlier if we're very lucky.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
There are snippets available! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
Has anyone else here read The Silent Mentor. This book is a spiritual memoir set in a fictional narrative and I am still trying to sort out what I make of it.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Scots lass
Shipmate
# 2699
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Posted
I finished His Bloody Project last week (then read the latest of Jonathan Stroud's fab Lockwood series). His Bloody Project is set in a crofting community in the Highlands in the 19th century and relates to a boy who murders one of his neighbours and two members of the neighbour's family. I'm from the Highlands, and the crofting community aspects rang true from what I know about the geography and the history of the area. The subsequent trial and associated write-ups also convey a lot about attitudes to Highlanders at that time, again it rings true. I tend to like novels based on "found documents", if they're done well, and this one really is. It's Booker-nominated, which doesn't always equal readable, but I found it very easy to read and got quite into it very quickly.
I'm very much hoping my dad doesn't see it, as otherwise it's totally going to be part of his Christmas present - crofts, history and the law is a perfect combination!
Posts: 863 | From: the diaspora | Registered: Apr 2002
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I want to hear about the new Jonathan Stroud. I have been recommending his Bartimaeus trilogy for years, as the equivalent of crystal meth in book form.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Printer-friendly view
