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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Mordor: twinned with Slough
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
Amongst the books I have shipped over here, mostly survivors of my late father's collection, is The Importance of Being Idle compiled by Stephen Robins - it makes being a feckless layabout a very proud thing to be!
It is the perfect bedside book.
[Why do I constantly read the title to this thread as being about Reading, the town in Berkshire, UK? Am I alone in this?]
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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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Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
[Why do I constantly read the title to this thread as being about Reading, the town in Berkshire, UK? Am I alone in this?]
It's not just you.
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Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Yes, I keep seeing this as a train travel advice thread - "the discount ticket to Reading..."
Anyway: someone recently lent me Lorna Byrne's book, "Angels in My Hair." Lorna is a middle-aged Dubliner who was considered to be retarded as a child and mostly written off as living in her own world: but Lorna isn't at all a sad personality. Her world is full of angels, who come to visit her, and it's also full of the incredible beauty of what she sees.
It's an extraordinary book, a gentle read so full of strong faith and light, a heartwarming story of how her life turned out and how she helps people these days, sometimes is able to heal them and put them in touch with their own guardian angels.
I didn't know what to make of this. Lorna is obviously sincere about her experiences, but some of what she describes left me wondering. None the less it was a lovely book to read if you can just suspend disbelief and enter into the spirit of the thing. It was a pleasure to recognize a lot of the places she describes at a time when I would probably have been around there too. (Did I ever see her working in the department store, I wonder?)
I may try to get hold of the sequel at some point soon.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Percy B
Shipmate
# 17238
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Posted
I have just recently read 'The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford edited by his friend Reuben Shapcott' and thoroughly enjoyed it.
It gives an insight into the non conformist world of the late Victorian period, and the small minded ness of religion at that time too.
It also tackles heAd on a crisis of faith by a minister and some deeps issues about belief, and how they affect the whole of life.
Quite easy to read, and thought provoking too, I thought.
It is available free from Project Guthenburg to download, in different formats.
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Mary, a priest??
Posts: 582 | From: Nudrug | Registered: Jul 2012
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Thurible
Shipmate
# 3206
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Posted
Have just read the new Ken Follett, Winter of the World. Tripe but good tripe that kept me gripped to my kindle for a few days. (And it's only 20p on there at the mo.)
Also read the first thee Merrily Watkins books which were, again, very gripping.
Thurible
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"I've been baptised not lobotomised."
Posts: 8049 | Registered: Aug 2002
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Angloid
Shipmate
# 159
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
Yes - Fr. Brindley of Holy Trinity Reading used to advertise 'fast trains from Paddington'.
When they were run by British Rail. ![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif)
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Brian: You're all individuals!
Crowd: We're all individuals!
Lone voice: I'm not!
Posts: 12927 | From: The Pool of Life | Registered: May 2001
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Angloid
Shipmate
# 159
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by chive:
Today I bought The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz which is supposedly a new Holmes book. It will be a wee while until I read it (due to my purchase of many of the suggestions on the previous book thread) but I can't imagine it will be anything like as good as the real Holmes. We shall see.
Nearly finished it. It is nearly as good as the genuine article! It is full of the usual Doyle stock characters and settings: dodgy aristocrats, vicars up to no good, street urchins, and of course good old (reliable if unimaginative) Dr Watson and Inspector Lestrade. To say nothing of the great genius himself who hasn't lost any of his skill at disguise.
I just get a slightly uneasy feeling that it's full of linguistic and other anachronisms but I can't put my finger on any of them.
Our small book group has just read Laurie Lee's As I walked out one midsummer morning, about his year spent walking through Spain, earning his keep from violin playing, and finally getting caught up in the beginning of the Civil War. Beautiful lyrical prose style; he captures the sense of place brilliantly, and as you might expect the tone darkens considerably towards the end.
Just ordered Sue Townsend's The Woman who went to bed for a Year. Mixed reviews, but everything of hers I've read so far is worth reading. Laugh a minute with a serious sting.
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Brian: You're all individuals!
Crowd: We're all individuals!
Lone voice: I'm not!
Posts: 12927 | From: The Pool of Life | Registered: May 2001
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leo
Shipmate
# 1458
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Cara:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
I have just finished Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Having read some reviews, it appears that most readers are women and most of them think it is self-indulgent because it is about a woman who doesn't seem able to get over a messy divorce and who travels the world to 'find herself'.
I disagree with those reviewers - maybe because I am a man? There is a lot of accurate observations about the difficulties people encounter when meditation.
I have already ordered the sequel.
Anyone else know this author?
I (a woman) enjoyed the book very much. I also like the follow-up,
Committed.
I finished Committed last night - she looks at the history of marriage before reluctantly taking the plunge for the second time.
Despite what conservatives say, marriage is a very malleable condition.
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My Jewish-positive lectionary blog is at http://recognisingjewishrootsinthelectionary.wordpress.com/
My reviews at http://layreadersbookreviews.wordpress.com
Posts: 23198 | From: Bristol | Registered: Oct 2001
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Lady A
Narnian Lady
# 3126
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Posted
We had a lovely display from a group of artists that all read Mink River by Brian Doyle, and then based their art on that novel at our public library. I was especially intrigued by the raven picture that had these amazing sentences intertwined with the feathers, so I picked the book up at a bookstore on the coast and read it. Really enjoyed it. Set on the Oregon coast, it was the lovely story of a small community that lived there. A reviewer said it well, "This thing reads like an Uilleann pipe tour de force by a Sligo County maestro cast up on the shore of County Tillmook...entirely bardic at heart."
Posts: 2545 | From: The Lion's Mane, Narnia | Registered: Aug 2002
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
I'm back with some more of the Muchamore Cherub series but I had a break to reread The Faraway Drums a Jon Cleary potboiler I haven't read for years - well written and pacy but not great literature. The premise was sort of Son of Kim but the structure of the writing was quite pleasing.
Cleary clearly ain't no Kipling.
[ 17. October 2012, 04:47: Message edited by: Welease Woderwick ]
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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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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
Another little break, this time away from Fiction altogether. Years ago my dad asked for Gavin Young's Slow Boats to China for a present and when he died I nabbed it for myself and it was in the consignment of books recently arrived - I have loved travel books since I read Steinbeck's Travels with Charley as a teen and this one is particularly good.
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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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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Just reading some of Mrs Gaskell's novels. I've just finished "Sylvia's Lovers", which is great - read it years ago and liked it, though it is a sad story. Her characterization is really good, I generally find she draws a very clear portrait of the characters and they come across as quite real.
I'm currently reading "Ruth", which I haven't read before. I don't think it's one of her best. It's the story of an innocent orphaned girl who is seen by her employer talking to a gentleman who has a fondness for her, and consequently loses her job. As she has nowhere to go, he takes her off with him to Wales. Some chapters later his mother turns up and Ruth, now a fallen woman, but still modest and virtuous, is dumped, with a baby on the way. The novel seems to wander a bit with some of the more obvious cliches of Victorian melodrama, but it's still interesting and I can't guess how it ends.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Quinine
Shipmate
# 1668
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Just reading some of Mrs Gaskell's novels. I've just finished "Sylvia's Lovers", which is great - read it years ago and liked it, though it is a sad story. Her characterization is really good, I generally find she draws a very clear portrait of the characters and they come across as quite real.
I really like Mrs Gaskell - she does try to tackle some serious themes (though I agree it is with varying success) and it may come as a surprise to readers who only know her for 'Cranford'. I think my favourite is 'North and South', though I also enjoyed the gentle irony of 'Wives and Daughters' - despite the fact that I didn't know until the end that she had left it unfinished, which was frustrating! It is pretty clear how it is headed, though. And the BBC did excellent TV drama productions of both novels, which are available on DVD (giving a satisfying ending to 'Wives and Daughters'...)
Posts: 252 | From: In a fen | Registered: Nov 2001
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Thurible:
Have just read the new Ken Follett, Winter of the World. Tripe but good tripe that kept me gripped to my kindle for a few days.
Yes, I felt the same way -- his writing is astonishingly mediocre, but I was interested both in Fall of Giants and in this book because I did like the idea of telling the well-known war (and between-war, and post-war) stories through the eyes of a group of characters from the different countries involved. Apparently it's going to be a trilogy and just as with the last one, he's conveniently set up all his characters to have children at about the same time so they'll all be able to interact with each other in 15-20 years. I wonder if the next one will lack focus without a world war to drive the plot along?
I've just finished Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins and loved it. The simplest summary is that it's about a man and woman who meet in 1962, never forget each other, and meet again in the present day when they're both much older ... but it's about a great deal more than that. Hollywood and fame and storytelling and, of course, love.
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
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Scots lass
Shipmate
# 2699
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Angloid:
quote:
Originally posted by chive:
Today I bought The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz which is supposedly a new Holmes book. It will be a wee while until I read it (due to my purchase of many of the suggestions on the previous book thread) but I can't imagine it will be anything like as good as the real Holmes. We shall see.
Nearly finished it. It is nearly as good as the genuine article! It is full of the usual Doyle stock characters and settings: dodgy aristocrats, vicars up to no good, street urchins, and of course good old (reliable if unimaginative) Dr Watson and Inspector Lestrade. To say nothing of the great genius himself who hasn't lost any of his skill at disguise.
I just get a slightly uneasy feeling that it's full of linguistic and other anachronisms but I can't put my finger on any of them.
I've just read it too! I really enjoyed it, and didn't get anything like as strong a feeling of wrongness from it as I have done from similar tales. PD James's Austen book - not quite right. Jill Paton Walsh's attempts at Sayers - not right either. This felt much more like it made it. The exception was perhaps that Conan Doyle's House of Silk would have been something different.
On a completely different note, I then read two of Dodie Smith's books which I think must have been recently re-printed. I love I Capture the Castle, so was hoping for something to capture my imagination in the same way. I read It Ends With Revelations a couple of years ago and felt I recognised the characters in one of the books, The New Moon With the Old, because of that - very full of life, bubbly teenage girls. In The Town in Bloom the character's morals were interesting, an affair with a married man was fine, being a kept woman was definitely not, which I couldn't quite work out. But the picture of 1930s theatre life was good, I could picture where they lived and imagine the characters in both books vividly, which is certainly true of I Capture.... I enjoyed them, but I don't think they're quite as captivating as Cassandra Mortmain, which would explain why Cassandra hasn't been out of print and these have!
Posts: 863 | From: the diaspora | Registered: Apr 2002
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
I'm coming to the end of 'The Child Who' by Simon Lelic. It's not a very demanding read and unrealistic enough for it to be safe for me to read in the middle of the night (there are several child murder books which I definitely wouldn't want to read then!), but a fun read nonetheless. All the dotting about between different times is confusing at first, but gradually the story comes together and it starts to make sense.
Now, I'm just waiting to see how it all ends - with a twist or two, no doubt.
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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've just re-read Muriel Spark's A Far Cry from Kensington and very much enjoyed 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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Dormouse
Glis glis – Ship's rodent
# 5954
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Posted
I've just been given a Kindle touch for my birthday. I don't quite know how I feel about it, yet...I've not downloaded anything - I think Mr D who gave it to me is a bit frustrated by this, but I can't explain why not. I almost feel like I'm betraying "my" books!!!
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What are you doing for Lent?
40 days, 40 reflections, 40 acts of generosity. Join the #40acts challenge for #Lent and let's start a movement. www.40acts.org.uk
Posts: 3042 | From: 'twixt les Bois Noirs & Les Monts de la Madeleine | Registered: May 2004
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Pine Marten
Shipmate
# 11068
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Angloid:
quote:
Originally posted by chive:
Today I bought The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz which is supposedly a new Holmes book. It will be a wee while until I read it (due to my purchase of many of the suggestions on the previous book thread) but I can't imagine it will be anything like as good as the real Holmes. We shall see.
Nearly finished it. It is nearly as good as the genuine article! It is full of the usual Doyle stock characters and settings: dodgy aristocrats, vicars up to no good, street urchins, and of course good old (reliable if unimaginative) Dr Watson and Inspector Lestrade. To say nothing of the great genius himself who hasn't lost any of his skill at disguise.
I just get a slightly uneasy feeling that it's full of linguistic and other anachronisms but I can't put my finger on any of them.
I had the same feeling when I read it when it first came out. Still can't put my finger on possible dodgy bits either, but the book was an immensely enjoyable read nonetheless. (I was watching an old Robin of Sherwood the other day and was pleased to see that Horowitz was the writer.)
On another tack, I've today ordered an edition of the Septuagint. I've been reading more about it since organising some Bible studies on the first chapter of John's gospel, and have found an online one, but there's nothing like the feel of a proper book in your hands!
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. - Oscar Wilde
Posts: 1731 | From: Isle of Albion | Registered: Feb 2006
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
Now that' interesting. I wasn't aware there was a reliable translation of the Septuagint into English.
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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
Anthony Horowitz wrote one of my favourite episodes of Robin of Sherwood - Children of Israel, which explained the position of Jewish people in Medieval England beautifully, within an exciting plot. I think the children in that episode were his own children, too.
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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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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
[Why do I constantly read the title to this thread as being about Reading, the town in Berkshire, UK? Am I alone in this?]
It reminds me of that (probably an urban myth) story of the Frenchman who got on a westbound train at Paddington and found himself in a carriage labelled "for Reading passengers only" ... with a sigh and muttered "les anglais ...." he got off and trudged back to the bookstall to get something to read.
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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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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Quinine, I agree with you about Mrs Gaskell's books - they're a great read. I'm currently enjoying re-reading "Wives and Daughters". Cynthia Kirkpatrick seems quite a modern type, but I'm betting these days Osborne Hamley's guilty secret would be the boyfriend he can't bring home to his parents.
quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
[Why do I constantly read the title to this thread as being about Reading, the town in Berkshire, UK? Am I alone in this?]
No, after years of commuting, every time I see the words "Reading" and "discount ticket" the association is unavoidable and disrupts my, er, train of thought.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Pine Marten
Shipmate
# 11068
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
Now that' interesting. I wasn't aware there was a reliable translation of the Septuagint into English.
I ordered it from Amazon, and will let you know how reliable it is when it comes!
quote:
Originally posted by Eigon:
Anthony Horowitz wrote one of my favourite episodes of Robin of Sherwood - Children of Israel, which explained the position of Jewish people in Medieval England beautifully, within an exciting plot. I think the children in that episode were his own children, too.
The writing in Robin of Sherwood was very good. Where else on the box would you find stories that include Arthur of Brittany, Adam Bell, Isabella of Angoulême and Herne the Hunter ![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif) ?
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. - Oscar Wilde
Posts: 1731 | From: Isle of Albion | Registered: Feb 2006
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chive
Ship's nude
# 208
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Posted
I've just finished Unity by Michael Arditti. It's written as if an investigation into the filming of a movie about Unity Mitford (an interesting enough subject anyway) in the late 1970s. During the filming one of the actresses blows herself, and several others, up at a memorial service for the Munich Olympic victims.
It's written from a number of viewpoints - letters from the script writer, the diary of one of the actresses, emails and discussions between people.
I found it a fascinating discussion of evil and fascism from both the left and the right. It also shows how the generation after those Germans involved in the Holocaust cope with the consequences of their parents actions.
I really enjoy Michael Arditti's books and I think this is my favourite. Clever, deep and very satisfying.
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'Edward was the kind of man who thought there was no such thing as a lesbian, just a woman who hadn't done one-to-one Bible study with him.' Catherine Fox, Love to the Lost
Posts: 3542 | From: the cupboard under the stairs | Registered: May 2001
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
I've just finished "A Passage to Africa" by TV foreign correspondent George Alagiah. It starts of detailing his own family's emigration from then-Ceylon to newly independent Ghana when he was 5, and then subsequent chapters detail some of the countries he worked in as a correspondent - including Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda, Zaire (now DRC), Zimbabwe, South Africa. He talks about stuff that happened while he was working and reporting and his impressions of the wider history/context - it's interesting, though of course harrowing too. It was published in 2001 and it was really interesting reading it a decade later with subsequent knowledge about what happened - I think he's rather too optimistic about Yoweri Museveni in Uganda, for example - and I would love to see him write an updated version giving his take on the last decade. As I was reading it you could tell he was a foreign correspondent, a lot of the phrases were very TV news-friendly I thought, he's good at distilling complex issues into a short paragraph, although of course in the distillation a lot of important detail is lost, as with any TV news report.
Next up: the first part of Stephen Fry's biography, "Moab is my Washpot". It's not our usual book group fare, and I rarely read biographies, but I'm looking forward to this one.
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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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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
I've just finished "A Passage to Africa" by TV foreign correspondent George Alagiah. It starts of detailing his own family's emigration from then-Ceylon to newly independent Ghana when he was 5, and then subsequent chapters detail some of the countries he worked in as a correspondent - including Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda, Zaire (now DRC), Zimbabwe, South Africa.
Mini name-drop time here, I knew him slightly when we were at university, and we met again quite by accident in a cheap hotel/guesthouse on the island of Lamu in Kenya in about 1981 - so we caught up and chatted and he told me about some of the things that were later in the first part of that book. Fascinating stuff and some background to the civil war that kicked off in Sri Lanka a few years later. The next time I saw him he was probably on TV talking to Nelson Mandela.
So when I read George's book it took me back to an Indian Ocean evening and palm trees and Tusker beer ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
[ 11. November 2012, 13:14: Message edited by: ken ]
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Huntress
Shipmate
# 2595
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Posted
I'm currently reading the Game of Thrones series, but alongside other, different books; partly to make them last longer, partly to avoid emerging blinking and disoriented on the other side. I know there has recently been a Game of Thrones thread and I won't go into much detail here, apart from to say that they are very good escapism for me - I've read a lot of historical novels and I like the alternate fantastical history presented in them.
I'm also reading my way through Patricia Wentworth's series of mysteries, which are particularly good for fitting into a bag and reading on the train or in a coffee shop. She is a great observer of human behaviour and her detective 'Miss Silver', an apparently harmless elderly lady who is often knitting for various relatives, is a wonderful character - compassionate but sharp as a tack. I really like escaping into the 1940s and 1950s world portrayed in the books, in which ladies wear hats and many problems are discussed over afternoon tea, and there is drama during cocktail hour.
They have an element of nostalgic cosiness to them, but the crimes and evil deeds are not sugar-coated. Nor, however, are they uncomfortably graphic.
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The Amazing Chronoscope
Posts: 431 | From: Lancashire / Nottingham | Registered: Apr 2002
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
My quibble with the Wentworth books is that there are always a couple of characters - the ingenue and the nice young man - who are never going to turn out to be the murderer. At least Agatha Christie occasionally makes an apparently sympathetic character be the killer.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Keren-Happuch:
Yes, but on the whole Wentworth was a better writer than Christie.
Most people are a better writer than Christie.
If you like Wentworth, Anthony Gilbert is another name to look out for.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
Unusually for me, I've just read a hot-off-the-presses first novel.
Alas, Laurie, the heroine of Zoe Venditozzi's "Anywhere's Better Than Here" is young enough to be my daughter, and, instead of empathising with her youthful angst, I found myself longing to dish out wisdom over coffee and biscuits, give her grotty flat a quick once-over with a pile of J-cloths and some elbow grease and give her a tenner with the instruction to buy herself a wee treat.
Youthful angst? I'm now full of middle-age angst that I've turned into my mother at some point and never noticed.
[ 26. November 2012, 07:36: Message edited by: North East Quine ]
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
I've just finished Sacrilege by S.J. Parris, a historical novel featuring the (real-life) Italian philosopher/alchemist/spy/whatever Giordano Bruno. It's the third in a series (a fact I didn't know when I bought it), and I think I'll have to get the others and do a bit of back-tracking. A good read.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Cara
Shipmate
# 16966
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Posted
Heavens.....I've been so seduced by the Circus games that I forgot all about this interesting thread....
I would have chimed in at several moments...I'd have told Scots Lass,for example, that I too love Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle which I first read at 18 (perfect age) but then again in my forties, when I liked it just as much. At which point I had a Dodie Smith craze and read most of her memoirs as well as the biography of her by Valerie Grove. Never got around to the novels you mention, though.
I've just read Swimming Home by Deborah Levy. This was short-listed for the Booker Prize and I heard her speak at the Cheltenham Festival (along with the other short-listed authors except Hilary Mantel and Will Self). I admire it very much...it's beautifully written but in a spare yet vivid way. After I'd finished I found it haunting me. It's about a family on holiday in southern France, an older poet, a younger poet...about going home, or the difficulty of so doing...Oh dear. Like so many good books, it's all in the writing, and it's hard to convey its atmosphere.
Now I've just started something completely different, Henry James's The American. I love James, though the later ones are rather heavy going. This is his third novel. He hasn't got into his really long-winded, ultra-convoluted full-blown style yet. I'm enjoying it so far.
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Pondering.
Posts: 898 | Registered: Feb 2012
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TurquoiseTastic
Fish of a different color
# 8978
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Posted
Just finished "Cancer Ward" by Solzhenitsyn. Lots of well-drawn characters - Rusanov the doctrinaire Communist with the ever-so-bourgeoise outlook is particularly memorable. Gets a bit bogged down with the philosophical musings and agonized introspection of the hero though. I guess all in the great Russian tradition...
Posts: 1092 | From: Hants., UK | Registered: Jan 2005
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Dormouse
Glis glis – Ship's rodent
# 5954
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Posted
I've never read any Jane Austen. I downloaded her complete works onto my Kindle for 0,89€ - because it seemed like a bargain!! The first novel it brings me to is Sense & Sensibility - do people think that's a good one to start with, or should I try another one first? Advice welcome!
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What are you doing for Lent?
40 days, 40 reflections, 40 acts of generosity. Join the #40acts challenge for #Lent and let's start a movement. www.40acts.org.uk
Posts: 3042 | From: 'twixt les Bois Noirs & Les Monts de la Madeleine | Registered: May 2004
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
I find it very difficult to get on with Jane Austen, but I did enjoy Northanger Abbey after I'd seen a TV adaptation of it. I've got a very visual imagination, and I just couldn't "see" what was happening in the books until I'd seen it on telly.
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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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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Pride and Prejudice is probably the 'easiest' - but also the best, so you might want to save that one up.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Cara
Shipmate
# 16966
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Posted
My favourite Jane Austen is Emma. And I think it would be a good one to start with as well.
I enjoyed Henry James's The American very much, although I was irritated beyond belief by the footnotes in the edition I had. It was an edition I picked up very cheap second-hand and obviously prepared for students who knew nothing at all. ("Paris" capital of France. The Seine, river running through Paris..." etc. ) Also the preface gave away the whole crux of the story on the first page.
But anyway, a good read about the encounter of the title's American with an old and very proud French family.
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Pondering.
Posts: 898 | Registered: Feb 2012
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TurquoiseTastic
Fish of a different color
# 8978
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Posted
I would just start with "Pride and Prejudice", Dormouse. If you don't know whether you are going to like Austen or not, why not give her the best possible chance?
Posts: 1092 | From: Hants., UK | Registered: Jan 2005
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
I've just started reading Jostein Gaarder's "The Christmas Mystery". It's a children's tale for advent, each chapter represents another window from 1st-24th Dec. Each chapter takes about 5 minutes to read so having caught up yesterday on the train (the book arrived on Thursday) I'm reading it a chapter a day to spin out the magic. So far I love it, and (like Joachim, the boy in the book) can't wait to see what's behind the next window.
Plus a 5 minute read is perfect for my attention span
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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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Cara
Shipmate
# 16966
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Posted
I loved Jostein Gaardner's Sophie's World and also Vita Brevis --the latter was called That Same Flower in the States--why? It drives me mad when titles are changed..
Anyway, VIta Brevis is a letter to Saint Augustine from the mother of his son Adeodatus. Whom one cannot help but feel he treated shabbily, according to his Confessions. This book brings her alive, tells the story from her point of view..I'm sorry if this sounds vague, I don't have the book to hand, but it's well worth a read and I think one of his lesser-known works?
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Pondering.
Posts: 898 | Registered: Feb 2012
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Percy B:
I just learned today that Margaret Yorke has died. Her obituary is in today's London Times.
Anyone read her? Anyone suggest a good one to read from her works?
Copied from the 'Margaret Yorke' thread.
jedijudy
Heaven Host
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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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Tree Bee
Ship's tiller girl
# 4033
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Posted
I haven't read any Margaret Yorke but she's popular in libraries.
She used to live not far away in Haddenham and a library colleague went to interview her. She came away very impressed.
My favourite Austen is Persuasion ; all that sexual tension!
[ 11. December 2012, 10:33: Message edited by: Tree Bee ]
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"Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple."
— Woody Guthrie
http://saysaysay54.wordpress.com
Posts: 5257 | From: me to you. | Registered: Feb 2003
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating.
A true account of a woman's unlikely companion during a long bout of illness, carried in with a pot of violets. I'm usually a very hard sell on the "heart warming," genre, but this slimey little guy and his life lessons about patience, etc. really got to me.
It's a very small book and would make an excellent gift for anyone on your list who is, ill, not a big reader, young or old.
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
I'm reading Charles Dickens' other Christmas Books, ie not A Christmas Carol (which is a work of genius). The Haunted Man and The Battle of Life.
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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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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
I'm reading Charles Dickens' other Christmas Books, ie not A Christmas Carol (which is a work of genius). The Haunted Man and The Battle of Life.
Not forgetting The Chimes which was as popular as Carol at the time, but hasn't lasted as well. It's interesting to consider why this is, since they have very similar themes. IMO, it's that Scrooge is an infinitely stronger character than Trotty Veck, and the supernatural elements - the Spirits of Christmas - are more numinous than any amount of goblins (a species that haven't lasted).
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Timothy the Obscure
Mostly Friendly
# 292
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Posted
I'm reading The Malice of Fortune by Michael Ennis, a marvelous historical thriller in the vein of The Name of the Rose or An Instance of the Fingerpost. Machiavelli, Leonardo Da Vinci, and the famed courtesan Damiata team up to catch a serial killer, with political implications. There's a "CSI: Renaissance Italy" aspect to it, with Leonardo inventing forensic science and Machiavelli working on becoming the first forensic psychological profiler, with arguments about whether it's more useful to try to understand a murderer in order to catch him, or whether one should stick to hard empirical data. Very well researched and well written.
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When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
- C. P. Snow
Posts: 6114 | From: PDX | Registered: May 2001
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
I've just finished reading ' A 1960s childhood - from Thunderbirds to Beatlemania' (Paul Feeney). Not the best-written book in the world, but full of nostalgic memories which means the enjoyment can override any annoyance.
Now I'm reading 'Quiet: The power of Introverts in a world that can't stop talking' (Susan Cain). It's a book Mr. C. chose with his Christmas book token, but I've commandeered it first - he's too quiet to complain ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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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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