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*What book are you reading? (part 2)

Having rediscovered my reading mojo I've recently reread Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies as well as An Experiment In Love. Pondering going through The Mirror And The Light again but in the meantime read A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee, which I like very much. The prose and the formal, considered tone reminds me of Kazuo Ishiguro and the plot includes episodes from the lives of comfort women during the second world war which are a difficult read but inform our hero's subsequent actions.
 
Alexander Baron - From the city, from the plough. Fantastic novel about the D-Day landings written in 1948 by an author who had witnessed the events as a solider. Quite a short novel, but he builds a really rich portrait of all the different characters in the battalion. Earthy, raw and unflinching.
I am reading this at the moment and agree with everything in this post :)
 
I just read a book called Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier about a teenage mum who falls in love with one of the customers at her pizza delivery job. It was quite good. 4*. Not sure what I’m going to read next.
 
Am rereading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. I'd forgotten how drily witty it is.

Has anyone read any of his Baroque series and if so would you recommend any book in particular ?
 
Am rereading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. I'd forgotten how drily witty it is.

Has anyone read any of his Baroque series and if so would you recommend any book in particular ?
I found the Baroque dead boring. There's definitely good stuff in there, but it's like he frightened his editor too much for them to do their damn job.
Much preferred the one where the Moon blows up.
 
I found the Baroque dead boring. There's definitely good stuff in there, but it's like he frightened his editor too much for them to do their damn job.
Much preferred the one where the Moon blows up.

Oh God. Everything by Stephenson after Snow Crash and the Diamond Age is 3 times too long. His editor needs to get editing.
Darn. I was pretty much expecting this though, last time I read Cryptonomicon I thought the middle could do with some serious prunage but hey, triumph of hope over expectation and all that, and there are plenty of his earlier works I haven't got yet, so I guess it's all good :D
 
After the untimely death of Hilary Mantel, and finding a book of hers I didn't have, I bought Mantel Pieces and it's fucking brilliant, I'd say her factual writing and literary reviews are even better than her fiction. Oy vey what a loss.
 
Ruth Rendell - Harm Done audiobook. Included with audible membership.

This one is a bit gruesome.

Am I officially middle aged listening to Rendell? ☹️
 
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Seven Kinds of People you find in Bookshops by Shaun Bythell

If you're thinking of reading this, don't bother! I was given it for my birthday. He's written several based on his experience of being a bookshop owner. He's rude and misanthropic about his customers. I'm surprised he has any (assuming his descriptions of people are based on true life)! And surprisingly free with describing his staff and their experiences

Gave up after a chapter. Not pleasant. A judgemental and superior-attitude book.
 
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By chance I was reminded of an author who I really enjoyed reading and somehow completely forgot about. Carl Hiaasen, in this particular case I'm reading Squeeze Me. A vicious and funny eye for floridas elites, corruption, mystery and conservation. Good yarns.
 
Oh God. Everything by Stephenson after Snow Crash and the Diamond Age is 3 times too long. His editor needs to get editing.

I've only ever read Snow Crash (well, listened to an audiobook) and if that's the apex of Stephenson's writing powers, I'm out. It does move along at a fun pace and YT was a cool character but it felt like such a bro book. Here's a cool action scene. Here's some tough talk. Here's the motorcycle/leather coat/L33T HACKER STUFF. Maybe it's just its age showing?
 
I've only ever read Snow Crash (well, listened to an audiobook) and if that's the apex of Stephenson's writing powers, I'm out. It does move along at a fun pace and YT was a cool character but it felt like such a bro book. Here's a cool action scene. Here's some tough talk. Here's the motorcycle/leather coat/L33T HACKER STUFF. Maybe it's just its age showing?
It's both of its time, and a lot of its biggest fans read it as a YA. I think it's a superlative example of its type, but its type isn't for everyone by any means.
 
I've just started the latest New Naturalist which is called Trees


I've been reading the new naturalist for about 8 years now but I think this is the one I have most looked forward to.

The next one I'm a bit excited about is on Small Mustelids but I'll have to wait till next October for that to be published.
 
do audio books count? if so, i'm thoroughly enjoying "the tenant of wildfell hall" by anne bronte on my evening's drive home...
 
Just finished two books about America's dirty underbelly

Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby is about a man trying to make the right choices, but his past gives him the wrong options

Bewilderness by Karen Tucker is about addiction, friendship and fucking up again and again.

If you're going to read either, Blacktop Wasteland is the better one
 
It's not something I've bothered with in a long while, that being fiction (unless you count studies on the official culture of Stalinism), but I've been revisiting Idoru, which was the first William Gibson novel I read when a teen way back when (what hair I have left is now turning grey).

I still enjoy his talent for fleeting but vivid description, including the comedic kerfuffle in the bathroom of the love hotel where the characters eventually converge, day-glo sex toys accidentally scattered everywhere.
 
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