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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Readme: the book thread.
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
I finished Rupert of Hentzau today, gloriously Victorian!
I still think Hope is but a mediocre writer but he got the spirit of the age about perfect.
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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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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Was Rupert the first volume, or the second? I have a dim idea that there were two.
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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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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
Wasn't the other Prisoner of Zenda? I read them both years ago, along with H Rider Haggard which have a certain similarity in my mental filing system
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
The Prisoner of Zenda was the first and Rupert of Hentzau the sequel - the other book he wrote about Ruritania was set about a century earlier and was The Heart of Princess Osra. None of them wonderful but they are worth a read.
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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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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
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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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
I just read a book that was mentioned at the SF convention I went to, it's not Science Fiction though.
Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford is a coming of story of a teenager during WWII who is sent with his mother from Mobile to a small town in New Mexico. It's fairly humorous and deals with his mother not being able to adjust to the change in circumstances. I do think the dialog might be a bit anachronistic, I think it was written in the 60's.
All in all a light good read.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
quote:
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.
Ah David Niven --- Swooon ![[Axe murder]](graemlins/lovedrops.gif)
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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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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271
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Posted
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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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.
Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
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. ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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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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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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
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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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
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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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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JoannaP
Shipmate
# 4493
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Posted
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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"Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow." R. H. Tawney (quoted by Isaiah Berlin)
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
Posts: 1877 | From: England | Registered: May 2003
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
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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'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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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
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 ]
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
quote:
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.
No, but this is the second year that I have taken part in a group on Library Thing, where we try and read previously unread books and thus make a small dent in Mount TBR (To Be Read). We all say how many books we are aiming to read for the year, it is added together so we have a group goal as well as personal goal - any books we read over our personal goal are 'donated' to the group total (as not everyone will meet their goal). I certainly found (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) that I was looking out some of the slimmer books at some points if I thought I was in danger of not reaching the goal. As part of the group we all have an individual thread, where we post what we've read, and often post reviews too. It's a nice little community, although of course the problem with that is that you read someone else's review and immediately want to buy that book, thus negating any effect you might have had on the TBR pile! I have found it useful as a spur to read some books that I've owned for ages (like, years) but never read before, although I probably could do better at not acquiring new books. But new books are so lovely...
I recently finished one, Blair Kamin's "Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age". He is the architecture columnist for the Chicago Tribune, and most of this book is drawn from his column there (and a few other articles elsewhere). Because of where he writes, a lot of the book is Chicago-focused, although he does include a fair amount of other US-based architecture, and just one non-US building (the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai). What I liked about this was that because it is aimed at a lay as well as professional audience, it makes the processes around architecture (planning, design, etc) clear and accessible, and I didn't feel like an ignoramus when I read it even though I know absolutely nothing about architecture. And even though I have never been to Chicago, so am not familiar with the buildings and spaces that he is writing about, it still held my interest (and in fact made me quite want to go and see the city). The other plus is that because it is based on a newspaper column, most of the chapters are only a few pages long, so it was great for dipping in and out.
Fiction-wise, I'm persevering with my quest to read War & Peace in a year. I'm a few chapters into Book 3, and finally the other day read a chapter where I was interested in finding out what happened. I still haven't come across a character I like yet, though. Overall I'm finding it a bit dull to be honest (if that's not heretical), but I'm only just over 300 pages in (another 1400+ to go...) so hopefully it will pick up eventually!
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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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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
I wouldn't call it a diary. I review every book I read and put it on my blog, which I've only done since 2010. Am coming up to 200 reviews.
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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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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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
Just read "The Bone Clocks" by the author of "The Cloud Atlas". It has some good characters but seemed overlong and the future section seemed a lot like "The Cloud Atlas".
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I use Goodreads that way. They not only allow you to post a review (which helps me to remember a book years later) but you can categorize books as Read, Reading, or Want to Read. All the books that I hear about, but can't find in the library or afford to buy right this instant, but do not want to lose track of, I put into Want to Read. There is also a feature that allows you to organize your books into various Shelves.
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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 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.
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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'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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ChastMastr
Shipmate
# 716
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Posted
I am sloooooowly working my way through Screwtape Letters again. I heartily recommend pretty much everything C.S. Lewis ever wrote. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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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My essays on comics continuity: http://chastmastr.tumblr.com/tagged/continuity
Posts: 14068 | From: Clearwater, Florida | Registered: Jul 2001
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
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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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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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
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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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
quote:
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).
How dreary! Are you retired from work?
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
quote:
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).
How dreary! Are you retired from work?
Not at all. I just like being ordered and keeping proper records.
Can you tell I'm an accountant?
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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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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
It's one of those books that sticks in your mind. I read it years ago but revisit it periodically. It really is very good.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Josephine
Orthodox Belle
# 3899
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Posted
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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I've written a book! Catherine's Pascha: A celebration of Easter in the Orthodox Church. It's a lovely book for children. Take a look!
Posts: 10273 | From: Pacific Northwest, USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:
quote:
Originally posted by Dafyd:
quote:
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.
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.
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!
I ordered it from my library based only on the title and the fact that you three liked it. I didn't even let myself read any of the jacket blurbs. I loved it, too.
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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Badger Lady
Shipmate
# 13453
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Posted
quote:
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.
I tend to listen to (unabridged) audio books rather than read them so don't normally post on this thread.
But listened to the Wizard of Earthsea recently and was somewhat underwhelmed. I liked it but I think I had it billed in my mind as Seminal Fantasy Work and so didn't enjoy as much as I was expecting.
I may try Dispossessed to re-establish mu faith in Ms Le Guin
Posts: 340 | From: London | Registered: Feb 2008
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
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.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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TurquoiseTastic
Fish of a different color
# 8978
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Posted
I've always had the opposite feelings - I love the Earthsea books, especially the first three. 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.
Posts: 1092 | From: Hants., UK | Registered: Jan 2005
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
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.
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.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Josephine
Orthodox Belle
# 3899
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Posted
quote:
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.
To be honest, I was struggling with the timeline in "The Dispossessed" at first -- and then it clicked. Shevek is a physicist who is creating a unified theory of time. And all of a sudden, the timeline (and a couple of other quirks of the story) -- things that had been a struggle became clear, even brilliant.
I'm not done with the book yet, but I'm still loving it.
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I've written a book! Catherine's Pascha: A celebration of Easter in the Orthodox Church. It's a lovely book for children. Take a look!
Posts: 10273 | From: Pacific Northwest, USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
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.
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.
I've got the lot. I did enjoy them, despite the couple of problems. And I didn't see a theme of suppressed women, simply an assumption that women didn't do magic.
At about the same time, I read a non-fiction book by Stan Gooch, on the brain - or possibly the mind. It had a rather odd view of the way the brain was organised, at odds, even then, I think, with the beliefs of those who studied th anatomy of the brain. In this book, for some reason, he felt it necessary to explain why there were no female wizards. (This book was, I should emphasise, in the Dartford Central Library, in a building funded by Andrew Carnegie, and with not obvious links to L-Space, or the activity of an orang-utan.) His arguments seemed to depend on female magic wielders only having access to puny little fairy wands and not proper staffs - pathetic imitations. Also he was much exercised by the way in which female magic users could not be easily defined, as male wizards can be, as either good or evil, but were always ambivalent, and thus untrustworthy. Not having noticed, I thought, that in folk story, they tend to be helpful when treated well, and not when treated badly.
His attitudes did rather colour my second readings of the trilogy. In the first reading, I tended to identify with Ged - having been used to identify with principal characters regardless of gender. It can get pretty boring identifying with some of the females - though there are plenty of good female characters once one wanders away from the famous few like Cinderella.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
Apart from the Earthsea series - which I thought was now a quintet, I enjoyed The Lathe of Heaven which I must go back and re-read.
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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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
I'm currently plodding through The Templar by Paul Doherty; it's a bit too heavy on the details of the battles and too light on the relationships between the characters for my liking, but that's probably just me.
I loved the Brother Athelstan books that he wrote as "P.C. Doherty", but his other characters have never really floated my boat - I don't know why.
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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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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
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.
I've just finished Dominion another book by CJ Sansom, but this time set in the 1950s. It takes place in an England where Lord Halifax, rather than Winston Churchill became Prime Minister after Neville Chamberlain and signed an appeasement treaty with Hitler.
It was fascinating.
I'm still putting off reading Lamentation because I don't want to have finished all the Tudor books that currently exist and have to wait ages for the next one.
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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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
I've been meaning to read Dominion, having just finished Jo Walton's "Small Change" series, which is a brilliant exploration of the same concept -- an alternate timeline where England made peace with Hitler. CJ Sansom's version of it seemed to attract a lot more controversy than Walton's did, either because he's a better-known author or because Walton used made-up characters as British fascist collaborators, while Sansom, as I understand it, used real people whose descendants weren't thrilled about the portrayal.
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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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Paul.
Shipmate
# 37
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Posted
I really should have another go at Dominion. I was enjoying it when I read it, but it was a long book, I put it down for a bit and...
This seems to happen to me a lot.
Posts: 3689 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2004
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
Trudy I didn't know about the other series - thanks.
Paul - I had to put it down for a while - I needed a break from the constant state of menace, but I picked it up again after a few hours because I wanted to know what happened to the characters.
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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chive
Ship's nude
# 208
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Posted
I hated Dominion, I thought it was really badly written and his rant at the end that the SNP (who I don't vote for) were akin to the Nazis was extremely offensive.
I did however love Winter in Madrid which is about the Spanish Civil War.
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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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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Re-reading "Americanah" by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. As they say, it's a story of race, love, and identity; the heroine is a young Nigerian woman who leaves Lagos and her boyfriend to go to university in America, and what happens next.
Astutely observed and well written, and authentically so: not by a non-African author trying to imagine themselves in the skin of an African trying to establish themselves in a different culture, but a genuine African voice on a different continent. The little asides, the things many people may take for granted, observed from a different perspective make this a book well worth reading.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
I didn't realize that Lamentation was available yet as an e-book here in Canada, but it is, so I imagine I will be reading that soon and be in that unenviable position of having read all the Shardlake novels and having to wait ages for the next one.
I think I have said this before but if Shardlake does not have a bit more luck with the ladies in this novel I will be very frustrated.
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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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JoannaP
Shipmate
# 4493
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Posted
quote:
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.
Huia, yes The Sorrowful Mysteries of Br Athelstan were originally published under the name of Paul Harding. Most of mine are old enough to use that name but the last couple are Doherty - which is really awkward if one likes to arrange books by author...
I agree with Piglet - it is the only series of his that I have enjoyed; it was a real shock when I discovered that Paul Harding was Paul Doherty. I think the Br Athelstan books are less cynical than Hugh Whatsit and his others
I have just finished re-reading Simisola by Ruth Rendell, which I really enjoyed. I knew I had read it before but the bits I remembered were from the sub-plot rather than the main plot, which often seems to be the case with me. I am frequently stunned by how well MrP can recall details of books he has read once, in his teens! It was a shock to realise that Simisola was written 20 years ago; at times it felt contemporary - apart from the prices and the lack of mobile phones.
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"Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow." R. H. Tawney (quoted by Isaiah Berlin)
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
Posts: 1877 | From: England | Registered: May 2003
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Paul.
Shipmate
# 37
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Posted
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.
Posts: 3689 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2004
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pimple
Ship's Irruption
# 10635
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Posted
quote:
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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In other words, just because I made it all up, doesn't mean it isn't true (Reginald Hill)
Posts: 8018 | From: Wonderland | Registered: Nov 2005
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pimple
Ship's Irruption
# 10635
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Posted
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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In other words, just because I made it all up, doesn't mean it isn't true (Reginald Hill)
Posts: 8018 | From: Wonderland | Registered: Nov 2005
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Paul.
Shipmate
# 37
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Posted
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.
Posts: 3689 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2004
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JoannaP
Shipmate
# 4493
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Posted
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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"Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow." R. H. Tawney (quoted by Isaiah Berlin)
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
Posts: 1877 | From: England | Registered: May 2003
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