*What book are you reading? (part 2)
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rubbershoes
not the only raver in the village
The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III
It consist of interweaving stories just before 9/11.
It's good on getting inside the heads of people doing bad things and justifying to themselves that they're good
It consist of interweaving stories just before 9/11.
It's good on getting inside the heads of people doing bad things and justifying to themselves that they're good
So I recently started reading Nevil Shute. I had vaguely meant to read On The Beach for a while. It really is the most unsettling book. If you can imagine a 1950s English suburban conservative take on nuclear war- essentially meeting the end of the world with a "mustn't grumble" attitude. It is in turns complacent, audacious, unselfconscious, chilling...it will stay with me for a long time.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
last two weeks I read Primo Levi 'If this is a man' and for lighter stuff Genevieve Cogman's 'The Invisible Library'
Am currently on 'narcoland' by anabel hernbandez, had it for a while and bush snr dying reminded me to tackle that.
Am currently on 'narcoland' by anabel hernbandez, had it for a while and bush snr dying reminded me to tackle that.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
I read that about a year ago, and another from him. They make you think ..
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
not light reading, no
I'm currently on Noumenon which is a sci fi story by Marina J Lostetter
quite good, if a bit offhand
ringo
Macaroni cheese controller
That was great, a treat from start to finish.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
just read Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. Its ukranian, was published over a decade ago but got an english translation this year. Really enjoyed it, went through it in one evening/early morning. Hopefully the sequel makes it to translation soon. I don't know what it was like in the original (obviously) but the translation is elegant and unfussy. Its a fantasy.
Did you cry then?
ringo
Macaroni cheese controller
No, but I was annoyed with Call for not having the guts to talk to his son.
I sobbed my eyes out!
BristolEcho
Well-Known Member
Just finished a Book of Dust.
Think I preferred the first half of the book to the second half. I got a bit bored of the constant running in the second half, where as the first half had some intrigue to it.
It was nice to be back in that world though. I've noticed that the next book is set after HDM, so I think I will try to read the previous ones again before then.
It was nice to be back in that world though. I've noticed that the next book is set after HDM, so I think I will try to read the previous ones again before then.
Just finished 'Hired' by James Bloodworth.
Basically a Guardian journo spends six months doing zero hours and casual jobs. It is much better than I thought it would be.
What I liked is that he goes beyond the tick list of things you would expect to find (low wages, grinding uncertainty, shit housing, atomised workers) and gets to the telling details - the job agencies repeatedly and casually underpaying, the workers too fearful to defend themselves, landlords and agents cheerfully ripping off tenants, the DBS check delays that stop people getting work, the way anxious workers have learned to parrot slogans abut the 'freedoms' of self employment.
I don't know if he consciously set out to do an Orwell, but there are strong echoes of The Road to Wigan Pier - the lists of weekly living expenses, the morning sights and smells of the modern dosshouse, why poor people prefer chips to brocolli, and other things.
Basically a Guardian journo spends six months doing zero hours and casual jobs. It is much better than I thought it would be.
What I liked is that he goes beyond the tick list of things you would expect to find (low wages, grinding uncertainty, shit housing, atomised workers) and gets to the telling details - the job agencies repeatedly and casually underpaying, the workers too fearful to defend themselves, landlords and agents cheerfully ripping off tenants, the DBS check delays that stop people getting work, the way anxious workers have learned to parrot slogans abut the 'freedoms' of self employment.
I don't know if he consciously set out to do an Orwell, but there are strong echoes of The Road to Wigan Pier - the lists of weekly living expenses, the morning sights and smells of the modern dosshouse, why poor people prefer chips to brocolli, and other things.
PursuedByBears
Go stick your head in a pig
Bought this today with some birthday Waterstones vouchers, I've been looking forward to reading this. It's 500+ pages and written by Ad-Rock and Mike D as the two surviving members.
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Ptolemy
like an unwound clock, I just don't seem to care.
Since I read Germinal and Nana at the end of 2017, I've slowly been going through the Rougon-Macquart cycle of novels by Zola. I love the way it captures the seedy, corrupt, sexually-charged and all-round hypocritical atmosphere of 19th century French bourgeois life, as well as the colossal economic injustice faced by the working class whose labour kept these middle-class and upper-class sleazebags in their unearned luxury.
In about September of last year, I thought I'd make the effort to read them in the order Zola intended, and it's been my main reading project since then.
I just finished The Dream - the one largely non-naturalistic novel that Zola wrote for the series. I'm not a sentimental person when reading, but this fairy-tale novel of an orphan girl falling in love with the son of a lord made me bawl my eyes out - such a sad, yet hopeful, uplifting and pure story.
I feel a bit more on terra firma with The Conquest of Plassans which I just started reading tonight. The story of a mysterious and seemingly sinister priest who comes to live in the central town of the series, his strange purposes and the double-edged relationship he has with his amiable buffoon of a landlord, it's shaping up to be another entertaining read. Dripping with paranoia, backbiting and a vague sense of foreboding which is increasing chapter by chapter...
In about September of last year, I thought I'd make the effort to read them in the order Zola intended, and it's been my main reading project since then.
I just finished The Dream - the one largely non-naturalistic novel that Zola wrote for the series. I'm not a sentimental person when reading, but this fairy-tale novel of an orphan girl falling in love with the son of a lord made me bawl my eyes out - such a sad, yet hopeful, uplifting and pure story.
I feel a bit more on terra firma with The Conquest of Plassans which I just started reading tonight. The story of a mysterious and seemingly sinister priest who comes to live in the central town of the series, his strange purposes and the double-edged relationship he has with his amiable buffoon of a landlord, it's shaping up to be another entertaining read. Dripping with paranoia, backbiting and a vague sense of foreboding which is increasing chapter by chapter...
ringo
Macaroni cheese controller
Wanderlust is taking hold, or a need to escape, and have bought a pile of travel writing.
Starting A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby today.
Just finished Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck.
For most of his one man and his dog travels through 1960 America it's interesting but not astounding. Not pedestrian, but the insights of place and humanity are quite hard won.
Then, just as the journey seems to be gently coasting to a close and he starts to think of home he visits a school in Texas where he witnesses crowds of baying rednecks scream abuse at a small girl attending a previously white only segregated school and he goes full Steinbeck.
At first his shock and sadness is palpable but measured. Then his experiences and conversation with locals lays bare the violence and indecency of the situation, and reveals a wisdom and understanding only a writer of his prowess could portray.
Finally he is struck with a sickened anger at the horror and unfairness of what he has seen and writes of it with a clarity and persuasiveness equalled only in his greatest two novels, Of Mice And Men and The Grapes Of Wrath.
Starting A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby today.
Just finished Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck.
For most of his one man and his dog travels through 1960 America it's interesting but not astounding. Not pedestrian, but the insights of place and humanity are quite hard won.
Then, just as the journey seems to be gently coasting to a close and he starts to think of home he visits a school in Texas where he witnesses crowds of baying rednecks scream abuse at a small girl attending a previously white only segregated school and he goes full Steinbeck.
At first his shock and sadness is palpable but measured. Then his experiences and conversation with locals lays bare the violence and indecency of the situation, and reveals a wisdom and understanding only a writer of his prowess could portray.
Finally he is struck with a sickened anger at the horror and unfairness of what he has seen and writes of it with a clarity and persuasiveness equalled only in his greatest two novels, Of Mice And Men and The Grapes Of Wrath.
BristolEcho
Well-Known Member
Really enjoyed that book. His book about Jesus was amusing too.
D'wards
IT'S YOUR DECISION DANIEL
I'm enjoying it too. Found it a little Irvine Welsh lite to start but I like Irvine Welsh so that's not a criticism.
In fact it's better than most of Welsh's output in the last 20 years.
Are his other novels as, erm, nasty?
BristolEcho
Well-Known Member
They are a mixed bag really. The second coming I personally found amusing. Straight white male I can't even remember and don't remember being impressed when I read it.
I have his others in my list to slowly work my way through.
I have his others in my list to slowly work my way through.
sovereignb
Well-Known Member
Just finished the sequel Kill Em All - not as funny, or maybe the novelty has worn off me. Entertaining enough though and nasty, in a slightly different way this time.
Ive read most of his others, albeit a little while back. None as cutting as KYF...The Amateurs comes close though.
BristolEcho
Well-Known Member
Currently reading George Orwell - Ode to Catalonia. Anyone on U75 read this?
D'wards
IT'S YOUR DECISION DANIEL
A Breath of Fresh Air by H.E. Bates.
The second darling buds of may book. It's delightful. A real palate cleanser after the nastiness of Kill Your Friends.
To be cliched, it really harks back to a simpler time, when a man could have a full English every morning without worrying about his arteries too much.
The second darling buds of may book. It's delightful. A real palate cleanser after the nastiness of Kill Your Friends.
To be cliched, it really harks back to a simpler time, when a man could have a full English every morning without worrying about his arteries too much.
Argonia
Happy go licky
Plateforme by
Houellebecq
(in French)Plateforme (roman) — Wikipédia
Houellebecq
(in French)Plateforme (roman) — Wikipédia
circleline
Well-Known Member
I read 'Lark Rise to Candleford' recently. Never watched the TV series. The books (a trio of memoirs) were a surprisingly informative glimpse into English village life in late 1800s (they were published in 1947). A gentle recollection of facts and scenes of times past. IE. Pudding was always served as a starter course (sometimes with a few currants and raisins) before the main dish of a bit of bacon and veg from the garden; obviously as a filler, as in the tradition of Yorkshire pudding. The only time it wasn't was when the pig was killed - 'who needed pudding when there was so much meat on offer?' And that old favourite 'Mead' went by the contemporary sounding name of 'metheglin'. Enjoyed this romp into the past much more than I thought I would.
Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee.
I am formulating the opinion that Leonard was the problem. Never seen 'him' and his behaviour deeply analysed! As such. The dynamic of the relationship seems to always picture him as the 'prop' the 'saviour' the person who gave and limited her exposure to people for 'her' good. There is something less than symbiotic occuring to me about him. Not evidenced as such. but a gut feeling. About his relationship with Virginia. I am always suspicious of 'saints and rescuers' Normally something dark and controlling lurks beneath.
I have never really been able to read Virginia's books (to date) But her 'Moments of Being' is very precious and her diaries fascinating!
I am formulating the opinion that Leonard was the problem. Never seen 'him' and his behaviour deeply analysed! As such. The dynamic of the relationship seems to always picture him as the 'prop' the 'saviour' the person who gave and limited her exposure to people for 'her' good. There is something less than symbiotic occuring to me about him. Not evidenced as such. but a gut feeling. About his relationship with Virginia. I am always suspicious of 'saints and rescuers' Normally something dark and controlling lurks beneath.
I have never really been able to read Virginia's books (to date) But her 'Moments of Being' is very precious and her diaries fascinating!
miss direct
misfungled
Not intellectual at all but I'm watching you by Lisa Jewell - really enjoyed it.
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