*What book are you reading? (part 2)

[izz]

It's like this, I passed our Waterstones yesterday and a book in the window caught my eye. As we're all masked up at the moment my glasses, without which I can't see anything, fogged to the extent I couldn't find the book in the shop and so I asked the kind assistant to find it for me and bought it blind. I now hate myself as I would never have bought the damn thing - 'The Madness of Crowds' which is waaaaaaaaaaaay more rightwing than I would have considered even looking at. So - what do I do ? I can't really take it back and don't wish to perpetrate anything like this by giving it to charity - recycling ? Use it to start the fire ?

 

[planetgeli]

Just finished Beyond the Oxus - Monica Whitlock

A good account of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the 20th century. Tajikistan particularly tragic as in the 1990s they had a civil war which went so unreported and unwatched by outside observers they can't even put an accurate number on those who died. Estimates are between 20,000 and 100,000 to give you some idea. They've also spent the whole century being fucked over by Russia or whatever neighbour took their fancy to killing them. And themselves. Hell of a hard place to live.

Uzbekistan sounds like a political shithole. It's name can be taken to mean 'home of the free' - which is deeply ironic for somewhere that has suffered effective dictatorship or proxy rule by USA (who used it for air bases in the Afghan war) for a lot of the time.

Now reading Bread and Ashes - Tony Anderson which is about travel and politics in the mountains of Georgia.

 

[Nikkormat]

The Pelican History of Greece by Andrew Robert Burn. It's quite dry, but I am learning a bit.

 

[Aladdin]

NEVER MIND THE B#LL*CKS
HERE'S THE SCIENCE
by Professor Luke O Neill.
A scientist's guide to the biggest challenges facing our species today


Really enjoying this

 

[DotCommunist]

Just finished Piransesi by Susanna Clarke, her last book was Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell so as soon as I saw she had a new novel out I was on it. I wish she was more prolific because this is peerless writing, easily the best novel of the year for me.

 

[krtek a houby]

Chester Himes - The Big Gold Dream.

Cops, killers and religious conmen in 50s/60s Harlem. Page turner.

 

[izz]

I'm on page 44 of Atlas Shrugged. Feel quite meh about it thus far, is it worth pursuing Urbs ?

 

[Sprocket.]

The Private Life of the Hare.
John Lewis-Stempel.
A lovely, little book of prose. It was a recent gift from a friend and I am finding it delightful.

 

[planetgeli]

The Private Life of the Hare.
John Lewis-Stempel.
A lovely, little book of prose. It was a recent gift from a friend and I am finding it delightful.

Is that The Running Hare? I enjoyed that. Even better was Meadowland. Enormous amount of knowledge of nature.

 

[Sprocket.]

Is that The Running Hare? I enjoyed that. Even better was Meadowland. Enormous amount of knowledge of nature.

He wrote The Running Hare and Meadowland, I will be reading those soon no doubt. My mate who sent me the book is a real countryman and a big fan of the books.

 

[sojourner]

The Winter of Our Discontent, John Steinbeck. Some horrible glaring isms in this emerging from the protagonist, but some absolutely fucking glorious analyses and comments on the nature of capitalism.

 

[rubbershoes]

Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks. Started it a few weeks ago and then got side tracked onto Hitler's Last Days by Gerhard Boldt.

 

[Sprocket.]

The Winter of Discontent, John Steinbeck. Some horrible glaring isms in this emerging from the protagonist, but some absolutely fucking glorious analyses and comments on the nature of capitalism.

I love Steinbeck.

 

[sojourner]

I love Steinbeck.

Me too, one of my all time faves.

 

[Orang Utan]

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

Interesting side-hustle as a romantic novelist too

 

[Orang Utan]

Just finished Piransesi by Susanna Clarke, her last book was Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell so as soon as I saw she had a new novel out I was on it. I wish she was more prolific because this is peerless writing, easily the best novel of the year for me.

She has had a chronic illness which got in the way of her writing - was housebound for a while, hence the subject of the novel

 

[BristolEcho]

Joe Abercrombie - The Trouble With Peace.

There are a few fans here of these series right? Next book is fucking good. I'm really tempted to go and read the originals again now as there's so much I forget. I had the audio books but they just don't stick.

 

[felixthecat]

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

Emotionally moving, informative and life affirming.

If you havent read Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air do so.

It is, as the cover note says, about what makes life worth living in the face of death. Its beautifully written

 

[farmerbarleymow]

There is a new site that allows you to buy books from independent bookshops

Bookshop

uk.bookshop.org

Guardian article about it

'This is revolutionary’: new online bookshop unites indies to rival Amazon

Bookshop.org, which launched in the US earlier this year, has accelerated UK plans and goes online this week in partnership with more than 130 shops

www.theguardian.com

 

[Reno]

I just finished Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix, a humorous horror novel about a haunted Ikea store (name changed for copyright reasons). It was entertaining enough, the best thing is that it looks like an Ikea catalogue and each chapter heading advertises a piece of furniture, which becomes increasingly sinister. The novel itself is very lightweight.



Now I'm 50 pages into Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick, which is gripping. Based on interviews it's the story of six ordinary North Koreans about day to day life there.

 

[Little Piranha]

There is a new site that allows you to buy books from independent bookshops

Bookshop

uk.bookshop.org

Guardian article about it

'This is revolutionary’: new online bookshop unites indies to rival Amazon

Bookshop.org, which launched in the US earlier this year, has accelerated UK plans and goes online this week in partnership with more than 130 shops

www.theguardian.com

Excellent news.

Just used this to order Piranesi, thanks for the heads up DotCommunist, I really like her writing too.

 

[krtek a houby]

I just finished Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix, a humorous horror novel about a haunted Ikea store (name changed for copyright reasons). It was entertaining enough, the best thing is that it looks like an Ikea catalogue and each chapter heading advertises a piece of furniture, which becomes increasingly sinister. The novel itself is very lightweight.

View attachment 237014

Now I'm 50 pages into Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick, which is gripping. Based on interviews it's the story of six ordinary North Koreans about day to day life there.

Amazing books and you can see why it garnered awards.

 

[kropotkin]

1. Suttree - Cormac Mccarthy
2. The Order of Time - Carlo Rovelli
3. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - Becky Chambers
4. Exhalation - Ted Chiang
5. The Secret Commonwealth - Philip Pullman
6. Birds Without Wings - Louis de Berniere
7. The Peripheral - William Gibson
8. Proxima Rising - Brandon Q. Morris
9. She Came to Slay: the Life and Times of Harriet Tubman - Erica Armstrong Dunbar
10. Radicalized - Corey Doctorow
11. American Dirt - Janine Cummins
12. Energy and Civilisation--a History - Vaclav Smil
13. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk
14. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher - Hilary Mantel
15. Lampedusa - Steven Price
16. I am Legend - Richard Matheson
17. Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff
18. Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
19. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
20. The Long Walk - Richard Bachman/Stephen King
21. The Plague - Albert Camus
22. All Systems Red - Martha Wells
23. Artificial Condition - Martha Wells
24. Rogue Protocol - Martha Wells
25. Exit Strategy - Martha Wells
26. Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 - Albert Marrin
27. High Rise - J. G. Ballard
28. The Girl With All the Gifts - M. R. Carey
29. The Rules of Contagion - Adam Kutcharski
30. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo
31. Night Boat to Tangier - Kevin Barry
32. Recursion - Blake Crouch
33. The Risk Pool - Richard Russo
34. The Vanished Birds - Simon Jiminez
35. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Attwood
36. A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom - John Boyne
37. Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky
38. James Baldwin - If Beale Street could Talk
39. The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness
40. The World at Night - Alan Furst
41. Red Gold - Alan Furst

 

[Detroit City]

Just ordered Obama’s new memoir off Amazon, should be here in a few weeks...

 

[hash tag]

I am reading this. It was bought because of the Guardian review. I didn't think I would like it but it's turning out to be quite and insight. Mrs Tag and I have both been into Wandsworth nick for open gardens day. I am just reading how the white collars in the there helped with the write ups for Grayling and Truss's reforms. It's shit. It's an eye opener and if anyone thinks being inside is like a holiday camp, they should read this.

A Bit of a Stretch by Chris Atkins review – how to survive in prison

An acclaimed documentary film-maker was given a five-year sentence for tax fraud. He details his time behind bars in a shocking, scathing, entertaining account

www.theguardian.com

 

[Hearse Pileup]

I'm tossing up starting "Capitalist Realism" by Mark Fisher (recommended to me by the band REAL(s) - who named themselves after it), and "The Last Man"; a book by Mary Shelley that is apparently the first example of dystopian fiction.

I tend to skew fiction usually but I know that I should probably engage with the ideas I have more by reading more theory

 

[sojourner]

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. Always loved the film, loved the remake too, but never read the book. Perfect for last night's howling wind and rain.

 

[Elpenor]

I've just finished the Kunt and the Gang autobiography, iKunt and now reading the biography of Ben Ryan who coached Fiji to Olympic Gold in rugby sevens

 

[Nikkormat]

The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov. 70 pages in and I'm enjoying it a lot.

 

[MrSki]

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. Always loved the film, loved the remake too, but never read the book. Perfect for last night's howling wind and rain.

Was listening to a book phone in on 5live & this came up as many listeners favourites so might give it a go myself. Let us know what you think please.