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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Readme: the book thread.
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I forget whether it's in this one or the next one Birds, Beasts & Relatives that Mrs. Durrell urges Gerry to mention that she is a widow, "because you never know what people might think." I too wonder what they all lived on.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
Just finished a re-read (well, honestly, a 'skim') of Janet Flanner's 'Paris Was Yesterday.' It's a collection of her columns for The New Yorker (mostly) written from Paris beginning in 1925 and ending as the German invasion was approaching the city in WW2. She covers an amazing range of subjects -- music, fashion, politics, and lots more.
I enjoy it every time I dip into it. And I've got to find 'London Was Yesterday,' which covers the war years.
As the reviewers say 'Highly Recommended.'
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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Jemima the 9th
Shipmate
# 15106
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I forget whether it's in this one or the next one Birds, Beasts & Relatives that Mrs. Durrell urges Gerry to mention that she is a widow, "because you never know what people might think." I too wonder what they all lived on.
Yes, it's in the introduction to My Family & Other Animals. I do think Mother Durrell is a bit fab.
Posts: 801 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2009
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
It's very rare for me to give up on a book, but I'm having to take a break from Albert Schweitzer's The Quest of the Historical Jesus. It's just incessantly turgid and he keeps writing in the voices of those he is critiquing. I seem to read the same thing over and over again, for half an hour at a time and yet somehow I've only progressed 5 or 6 pages. I'll come back to it later.
In the mean time, I shall embark upon a much lighter affair: Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm. I've had some trepidation about this, as I'm a big fan of Thomas Hardy and I fear her work may destroy some of my favourite works of fiction.
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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
Cold Comfort Farm is a delight, sadly my copy is now very old and very battered [Penguin, printed 1941] - enjoy!
I am currently rereading a favourite book; it deals, amongst other things, with cannibalism in Alabama in the late 1920s and is supremely funny. Possibly not as funny as Stella Gibbons but still laugh out loud funny.
Well done Fannie Flagg!
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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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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
Just read Mars Evacuees and Space Hostages by Sophia McDougall. These are YA science fiction set in a near-future Earth, very well-written, funny, thought-provoking. Highly recommended.
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sipech:
In the mean time, I shall embark upon a much lighter affair: Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm. I've had some trepidation about this, as I'm a big fan of Thomas Hardy and I fear her work may destroy some of my favourite works of fiction.
AIUI she was aiming more at Mary Webb, so you may be OK.
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My beard is a testament to my masculinity and virility, and demonstrates that I am a real man. Trouble is, bits of quiche sometimes get caught in it.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Cold Comfort Farm is absolutely delightful.
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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
My mother liked Cold Comfort Farm a good deal, as she grew up on a small farm in Sussex. I don't think there was anything nasty in the woodshed.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
I'm in the middle of A Slip of the Keyboard, collected articles and speeches and so on by Terry Pratchett. There's a lot of excellent advice about writing, amongst other things.
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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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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jemima the 9th:
There are a lot of things you notice as an adult, and wonder about - where did they get all their money? Where was Pater Durrell? Isn't Larry a bit of a tit? It's all rather romantic about the peasants, and all a bit colonial in spirit, if you see what I mean.
I don't know if this is correct, but I have a vague idea Pater Durrell was stationed in India (it's where Gerry was born) and I always envisaged the family living on his pension.
after he died. Corfu then would have been really cheap.
Have you read any of Larry's books? I read
White Eagles Over Serbia as a teenager and remember being disappointed that it wasn't funny. I've also read The Alexandra Quartet, four interlinked books told from the viewpoint of the different characters. I remember my English lecturer at Teachers' College saying "Laurence Durrell needs to be read with a dictionary in hand", as his vocabulary is amazing. I'm not sure I really understood the books and had vaguely planned to re-read them some day, but the convoluted relationships between the people put me off (there is incest and some of the relationships are quite dark).
I also remember reading Bitter Lemons a non-fiction book he wrote about Cyprus.
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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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
I just finished The Miniaturist and I mostly agree with what the Ship's Book Group has said about it here. (But not with all. I can see why Johannes would only have two servants.)
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
Having been a bit under the weather for a few days I wanted something easy and fun and have revisited The Old Bailey in the company of Horace Rumpole - there was a problem with that in that some bits are side-achingly funny and my stomach wasn't really ready for it but I survived - full marks to John Mortimer.
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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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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
Having been a bit under the weather for a few days I wanted something easy and fun and have revisited The Old Bailey in the company of Horace Rumpole - there was a problem with that in that some bits are side-achingly funny and my stomach wasn't really ready for it but I survived - full marks to John Mortimer.
Rumpole is perfect under-the-weather reading!
I've just finished Agatha Christie's Endless Night. If you can reconcile yourself to all the anti-Romani prejudice voiced by some of the characters (and I'm afraid, I suspect, by the author), then it's a thrilling story, even though the first half is almost all set-up. And when the plot starts getting twisty - ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
I'm in the middle of the Spiritwalker trilogy by Kate Elliot, which has that wonderful "just-one-more-chapter" thing where you suddenly realise it's midnight!
It's a wild and heady mixture of Regency romance, with magic, airships, a city in the Caribbean, that world's version of Napoleon, the spirit world which only a few characters can access, the Wild Hunt, intelligent feathered dinosaur lawyers, Phoenecian spies, and a history which sends the inhabitants of the Malian Empire into Celtic lands, resulting in lots of mixed race characters. And zombies - well, sufferers from the salt plague, but they're basically zombies.
Epic fantasy as I've never seen it done before, and it's great fun!
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Cold Comfort Farm is absolutely delightful.
How true. I re-read it recently and it inspired me to re-read Jane Austen.
The other novel by Stella Gibbons I've read was worthwhile, but not on the level of genius as CCF. Forgot its title.
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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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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
She's written 2 or 3 sequels to CCF which are not anywhere near as funny. One cannot read Thomas Hardy or Mary Webb with the seriousness they deserve, after CCF.
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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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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
Or D H Lawrence
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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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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
Stella Gibbons published a selection of short stories called after the opening story "Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm". The other stories are quite good, but the title story is weak.
I don't think she wrote any other CCF related works.
Nightingale Wood is the book I have read and I 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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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
I recently bought All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr. I more or less grabbed it at random from the airport bookstore while running to catch my flight. So far, the first pages have been good.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
I'm reading Pendennis by Thacheray and enjoying 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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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
I just read "Homesick" and "World Cup Wishes" by Israeli author Eshkol Nevo on the suggestion of an Israeli friend. They deal with relationships between friends and couples. Interesting, and the quality of the writing survives a less than stellar translation.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I am halfway through The Dean's Watch by Elizabeth Goudge. Was it here, that someone warned me it was a slow start? This is palpably a book of the last century; there is no way one could ramp it up so slowly today. I think the plot is finally in motion, but it took her a hundred pages to set the scene and get it in motion and the payoff had better be worth it. It is also (possibly because of the setting and characters, Victorian England and clergymen in a cathedral town) overtly Christian in nature. Is this a consistent feature of Goudge's work?
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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
No, I read quite a bit of Elizabeth Goudge's work when I found some in the library more years ago than I want to remember. I think I struggled with The Dean's Watch, but it's ages since I read it.
I loved the Eliots of Damerosehay series, particularly The Herb of Grace (and that line about going into the woods and laughing), The White Witch and quite a few others. Wasn't there one set in the Channel Islands, called Island Magic which I loved?
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I am halfway through The Dean's Watch by Elizabeth Goudge. ... It is also (possibly because of the setting and characters, Victorian England and clergymen in a cathedral town) overtly Christian in nature. Is this a consistent feature of Goudge's work?
I've always thought reading one of Goudge's novels was like riding horseback through the countryside -- sometimes posting along at quite a good pace, sometimes walking, sometimes stopping to admire a view. I read 'TDW' a long time ago and don't really remember it, and I've read some that I don't even remember the titles. I did like 'Towers in the Mist' quite a bit -- set in Oxford in the time of QE1, but with LOTS of older history.
I think her short stories are far better than the novels.
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
I have just acquired Arnold Bennett's Books and Persons 1926-1931. It's a collection of columns he wrote for The Evening Standard.
For years I have been a fan of Bennett's novels about the Five Towns. I decided to get this book to see what it was like. I am enjoying it very much.
Here is a sample* that shows why I like it. quote:
Norman Douglas has a considerable reputation--as the author of South Wind. It is a book like no other. His more excitable admirers count Mr. Douglas among those few writers each of whom is in a class consisting of one person. For myself, I think that South Wind has the fault of monotony, and that the second half is much inferior to the first. But at worst it is a better book than They Went, which in half an hour dangerously lowered my temperature to sub-normal. Old Calabria, mainly descriptive, I prefer to either of the chief fictional works. Mr. Douglas's creative method is to get an idea or let an idea get him. He then says (I surmise): "That's an idea! And it is. He then says: "That's a very good idea!" And it is. Finally he says: "I can make that idea into a book." And he does.
But in my opinion he is apt to be too content with his idea. When he says that he will make the idea into a book he does not give sufficient importance to the word make. An idea must be made; it will not make itself: it will only expand itself or nullify itself into a series of similar cells. The process of making an idea includes thrashing it, hammering it, tearing it to pieces, putting it together again, diluting it, draining it, shaping it, heating it, hardening it, chipping bits off it, adding bits to it, colouring it, and generally transforming it so that its own father wouldn't recognise it. There is more difference between an idea raw and the finished, fashioned product than there is between a musical comedy star when she gets out of bed in the morning and a musical comedy star when she prances at night on to the stage in full, carefully-contrived glory of complexion, coiffure, and costume.
pp. 380-381
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
What I am noticing about The Dean's Watch, in the first half of it at least, is how very unhappy just about every character in the book is. They are all unhappy in different ways, and their miseries are lovingly delineated and described -- not enacted, in action, but described by the author to us. The plot, I trust, will involve somebody doing something about their unhappiness, but most of the characters seem to have endured their misery for years, all their lives, and so the odds of this are not high.
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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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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
Eigon: quote:
I'm in the middle of the Spiritwalker trilogy by Kate Elliot, which has that wonderful "just-one-more-chapter" thing where you suddenly realise it's midnight!
I'm halfway through it now (having bought it on your recommendation) and I agree; it's great fun.
There are so many good fantasy books around at the moment I'm spoilt for choice... a wonderful situation to be in.
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
On an economy drive and only reading stuff I can download for free, I have just finished the Phantom of the Opera (in French). I think I must have read it when I was a teenager but didn’t remember it all.
My main memories of the story come from the musical, but the book is actually quite different. A very enjoyable read at all events.
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Rent my holiday home in the South of France
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
Over the weekend, for a little light Hallowe'en reading I read Susan Hill's The Small Hand.
It's not quite in the same league as The Woman in Black, but it's an extremely well told story, very difficult to put down.
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
Forgot any Halloween reading. Normally do The Call of Cthulhu in one sitting.
Am trundling through Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise which is rather good, even if it is a bit politically right wing. If you work in financial forecasting, it's well worth a look.
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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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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
quote:
Sipech: Am trundling through Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise which is rather good, even if it is a bit politically right wing.
That's interesting, because Silver identifies as a Democrat (although he separates his personal political stands from his statistical work).
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
I read the first volume of the 'Spiritwalker' trilogy at Halloween, which was very appropriate but completely coincidental!
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
On an economy drive and only reading stuff I can download for free, I have just finished the Phantom of the Opera (in French). I think I must have read it when I was a teenager but didn’t remember it all.
My main memories of the story come from the musical, but the book is actually quite different. A very enjoyable read at all events.
You're right. It a great little read, done a great miservice by only being known for the musical. It's more of a mystery story than anything.
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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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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
quote:
Sipech: Am trundling through Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise which is rather good, even if it is a bit politically right wing.
That's interesting, because Silver identifies as a Democrat (although he separates his personal political stands from his statistical work).
YMMV but I would still class most Democrats as a bit right wing.
My comment was based on two things:
1) He seems to see the 2008 financial crash as primarily a problem about prediction failure, rather than anything inherent in the financial sector and its under-regulation, which led to the creation of over-complicated instruments.
2) A bit later in the first half of the book he states that he advocates competition between public and private sectors, seeing the free market as an inherently good thing.
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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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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
quote:
Sipech: YMMV but I would still class most Democrats as a bit right wing.
Okay yes, so would I. I understand a bit more of what you mean by 'right wing' now. I haven't read his book, but I would classify the two examples you mentioned as right wing too.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
Wasn't there one set in the Channel Islands, called Island Magic which I loved?
Yes. I think there was more than one set in the Channel Islands - they were delightful. I don't think "The Dean's Watch" was one of her best.
"Towers in the Mist" is one I enjoyed for its setting and "Green Dolphin Country" is a powerful and more adult novel that is worth reading (a happy-go-lucky young man from the Channel Islands, friendly with two sisters, emigrates to New Zealand and writes back asking one of the sisters, who he secretly had warm feelings for, to come out and be his wife. Unfortunately, he puts the wrong sister's name in the letter, and what follows is the story of their marriage and what happens next...)
[ 03. November 2015, 18:10: Message edited by: Ariel ]
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I posted a review of The Dean's Watch over on Goodreads. Is Green Dolphin Street her best book? Or should I seek out The Little White Horse?
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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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Kitten
Shipmate
# 1179
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Posted
The Little White Horse is lovely, I. Still have the copy I bought when I was eight and occasionally re read it.
I liked The Dean's Watch, one of my favourite of her adult books, but didn't care that much for Green Dolphin Street. City Of Bells is another favourite
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Maius intra qua extra
Never accept a ride from a stranger, unless they are in a big blue box
Posts: 2330 | From: Carmarthenshire | Registered: Aug 2001
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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271
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Posted
The Little White Horse is one of my favourite books. Her descriptions of animals (and I'm not that much of an animal lover) are great.
I'm reading my way through the Eliots of Damerosehay. I must have read them before as I knew twins would turn up somewhere but don't really remember anything else.
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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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Kitten
Shipmate
# 1179
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Posted
Re. The Little White Horse, it was ages after I moved to Devon before I realised that I lived near the (fictionalised) setting for this, Moonacre manor was inspired by this
and the castle in the Dark woods was inspired by this this
Ive also recognised settings for some of her other books locally
[ 04. November 2015, 15:13: Message edited by: Kitten ]
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Maius intra qua extra
Never accept a ride from a stranger, unless they are in a big blue box
Posts: 2330 | From: Carmarthenshire | Registered: Aug 2001
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger.
I just finished this literary mystery and thought it was quite good. Several mysterious deaths in a small Minnesota town in 1961. The protagonist is a 13 year-old boy who uses the freedom of childhood to snoop out things the police and adults are blind to.
The boy's father is a Methodist minister and his wise advice and sermons add a nice dimension as the writer tries to explain the "awful grace of God," through him..
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
"Green Dolphin Country" is a powerful and more adult novel that is worth reading (a happy-go-lucky young man from the Channel Islands, friendly with two sisters, emigrates to New Zealand and writes back asking one of the sisters, who he secretly had warm feelings for, to come out and be his wife. Unfortunately, he puts the wrong sister's name in the letter, and what follows is the story of their marriage and what happens next...)
I just saw the movie version of this on Turner Classic Movies! (Green Dolphin Street")It starred Lana Turner and Donna Reed as the sisters and was kind of fabulous. I loved it.
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
Today I finished yet another re-read of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings + some, but not all, of the appendices - and now I am free to start Yasmin Kahan's The Raj at War - A People's History of the Second World War which was delivered after I had started the Tolkien. I also have on order the book on India and the First World War which will be published next month.
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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
I am reading the letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle. It is interesting to watch Christian charity (or writerly discretion) warring against an innately waspish pen. (It was a friend of the Carlyles who noted how fortunate it was, that they had married each other. If they had married others, then four people would be unhappy, not 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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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
I'm currently reading Alex Bellos' Alex Through The Looking Glass. It's his follow-up to Alex's Adventures in Numberland, which was one of the best pop-science books on maths I've ever read. The follow up started shakily, by looking at the psychology of numerology, but it's picked up and is now rather enjoyable.
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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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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
quote:
LeRoc: I recently bought All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr. I more or less grabbed it at random from the airport bookstore while running to catch my flight. So far, the first pages have been good.
I liked the description of Saint Malo during the War. The salty closeness of the sea, the French oldness of it, the claustrophoby behind those thick walls … I didn't care much about the characters or the plot though.
Today I bought Meursalt, contre-enquete by Kamel Daoud. Let's see.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
Having read and loved some of Geraldine Brooks's other books (March, Year of Wonders), I picked up her novel about King David, The Secret Chord, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's the story of David as told by the prophet Nathan, and I found it engrossing. Biblical historical fiction is not often done really really well, but this is one I would add to my collection of favourites in that genre.
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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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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
I just started Landmarks by Robert MacFarlane. It's a collection about language and place - the author has over the years collected lots of place-words, in lots of the various languages and dialects of the British Isles, related to landscape, nature and weather. The blurb describes it as 'both a field guide to the literature he loves ..., and a 'word-hoard' ... we come to realize that words, well used, are not just a means to describe landscape, but also a way to know it and to love it.' I've only read the introductory chapter so far, but it's exactly the sort of beautiful nerdy read I love, and his writing is gorgeous.
He wrote about collecting words as he came across them in random notebooks here and there, and I suddenly was reminded of our dear departed shipmate ken - I remember giving him a lift to Greenbelt a couple of times, and he had a notebook with him where he would write down all the various flowers, grasses and birds he saw in the verges on the way there. And then as I read I thought how much he would like this book, and then I felt a bit sad ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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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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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
Just read Rose Macaulay's The World my Wilderness . Beautifully written, slightly surreal (at least, seventy years on) and morally serious. I think it will stay with me.
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My beard is a testament to my masculinity and virility, and demonstrates that I am a real man. Trouble is, bits of quiche sometimes get caught in it.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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