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*What book are you reading? (part 2)

I’ve just finished Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I like his style and tone and I don’t think you need to understand every single thing that’s going on or get every 1940s pop culture reference to get a grasp of the story he’s telling. I’m not going to read it again but I am going to buy a copy of Mason and Dixon which seems to be the next logical step for me.
 
The Flight by Gaito Gazdanov. Not far into it, but so far it's excellent. Gazdanov is a contender for being my favourite writer - try Night Roads.
 
Tom Lutz’s Born Slippy, a bit of a bromance, mixed with a bit of caper with a dash of critique of late capitalism.

A throughly good read.
 
Just finished Tales of Muffled Oars - Magnus Mills' latest - it was OK - self published for some reason (dropped by Bloomsbury?)

About halfway through Ian Rankin's WestWind. I can see why he used to say that he wouldn't allow it to be republished (but has now caved due to fan pressure/money/whatever)
 
I bought 'The Penelopiad' by Margaret Atwood, without realising what it was referring to. So now I'm having to read Homer's 'The Odyssey', in order to find out about Penelope before the Atwood book! I bought the Wordsworth Classic translation at first, but it was fucking unreadable, so now I'm reading the Robert Fagles one, and quite enjoying it. Soooo many characters though. No way I can remember them all.
 
"A Pleasant Treatise Of Witches Their Imps, and Meetings, Persons bewitched, Magicians, Necromancers, Incubus, and Succubus's, Familiar Spirits, Goblings, Pharys, Specters, Phantasms, Places Haunted, and Devillish Impostures: With The difference between Good and Bad Angels, and a true Relation of a good Genius" By A Pen Neer The Covent Of Eluthery

It's easy going for a non-fiction book on a topic unfamilair to me, I'd recommend it for light bedtime reading.

books.google.co.uk

A pleasant Treatise of Witches, their Imps and Meetings, Persons Bewitched ... and Devillish Impostures. By a pen neer the Covent of Eluthery

books.google.co.uk
 
With The End in Mind: How to Live and Die Well by Kathryn Mannix.

Emotionally moving, informative and life affirming.
 
Professional - it was good, but just said the same thing again and again. Not really a useful book for those involved in palliating patients, more to educate the lay person.
 
kropotkin said:
Professional - it was good, but just said the same thing again and again. Not really a useful book for those involved in palliating patients, more to educate the lay person.
Click to expand...

Having now read three-quarters of it I have become aware of some repetition. As a lay person, but a very experienced cancer patient I bought this following a podcast from the You, me and the big C series where it was discussed. There is a need for a discussion about bringing the topic of death to be brought back into the families and communities.

But I think in all honesty I should probably start a thread on the appropriate board, if it’s not too morbid.
 
Just finished Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, set during the Biafran revolution and Nigerian civil war in the late 60s. Really enjoyed it, some extremely tense moments as the war catches up with the characters.
 
kropotkin said:
Professional - it was good, but just said the same thing again and again. Not really a useful book for those involved in palliating patients, more to educate the lay person.
Click to expand...

Lay people don’t all necessarily need the same message hammering in again and again. ;)

Reading Sirens Of Titan by Vonnegut.
Weird in a good way.


#notalllaypeople
 
Buddy Bradley said:
Just finished Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, set during the Biafran revolution and Nigerian civil war in the late 60s. Really enjoyed it, some extremely tense moments as the war catches up with the characters.
Click to expand...
I remember that dreadful conflict from the BBC news as a child. I am interested in reading this.
 
I bought The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, not realising what it referred to until I read the back cover blurb. So then I had to read The Odyssey before I could start it! Having never read The Odyssey, I bought completely the wrong translation, the George Chapman one, which is pretty much unreadable to a modern eye. I got the Robert Fagles one then, which opened it right up for me, and was actually beautifully poetic, and I believe stuck to many of the original phrases. Anyway, loved it, but had some major problems with it. Atwood picked up on all my problems with it in The Penelopiad :D Very glad I have read both now.

Have just started Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates, after reading an interview with her, and after looking up the Men Who Go Their Own Way site. Fuck me, don't go there unless you're feeling mentally well, or it's a big ole dark pit to fall in. The posters section alone is one of the most disturbing things I've seen. Goes way further than rape 'jokes'.
 
Mountain Fires: The Red Army's Three-Year War in South China, 1934-1938 by Gregor Benton.

The guerilla fighters left behind to allow the safer retreat of Long Marchers, their tenacity, failures and the eventual formation of the New Fourth Army.
 
Re reading Untied Kingdom , by James Lovegrove. It's entertaining enough but that's not why we're passing it around again, it's because it's about a dystopian future where.......

"After a series of disastrous political decisions the United Kingdom has finally fallen foul of the International Community. Ostracized and bombed at random, the country has fallen apart. With the infrastructure in ruins tiny communities struggle on, relying on ancient traditions and myth for their structure and identity. "

That has to be Brexit, you think? No, it was published in 2003 as a reaction to the Balkan War but hey, it's prophetic. I need a Brexit edition, Christmas stocking gift for
Brexiters.
 
Saddam - The secret life by Con Coughlin

It turns out Mr Hussein was always a nasty chap.

Interesting book, though I don't know how much more I can read about him bumping off his former friends
 
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