*What book are you reading? (part 2)

[Dirty Martini]

Finished The Savage Detectives, which I loved. A very big book about actually qute a small story. Moving and funny, very detailed, and absolutely right about the course of a life.

Now reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

 

[Dirty Martini]

i'll check the preface and report back sah! (sure it said it was part of a 3-some but could well be wrong...)

Yes, Hangover Square is standalone. The two trilogies are The Gorse Trilogy and Twenty Thousand Streets.

Patrick Hamilton is one of my favourite writers and I'd recommend everything mentioned here, especially Slaves of Solitude, which is his single best book in my opinion. Also, Craven House, an early one, which is raw but very very funny.

I hope they can get all his books back into print. There are still some that you'll only find if you want to buy a first edition for big money.

 

[Fictionist]

Scaramouche - Rafael Sabatini

 

[llion]

Lush Life - Richard Price. Brilliant new novel by one of the main writers for 'The Wire'. Although set in New York rather than Baltimore, its got a lot of affinities with 'The Wire' and the dialogue in particular is amazingly crisp and contemporary. Richard Price was one of Richard Yates's students when he used to teach creative writing at some university in the seventies, and there are some parallels with Yates in his work I think, although the settings are very different. Price's introduction to the Everyman edition of Revolutionary Road is very interesting for Yates fans.

 

[Ceej]

Lush Life - Richard Price. Brilliant new novel by one of the main writers for 'The Wire'. Although set in New York rather than Baltimore, its got a lot of affinities with 'The Wire' and the dialogue in particular is amazingly crisp and contemporary. Richard Price was one of Richard Yates's students when he used to teach creative writing at some university in the seventies, and there are some parallels with Yates in his work I think, although the settings are very different. Price's introduction to the Everyman edition of Revolutionary Road is very interesting for Yates fans.

^^^^ This one's next for me - not long finished The Corner by David Simon and Ed Burns - creators of The Wire. Concentrates on a single neighbourhood in Baltimore, drugs being the only economically and socially viable reality. Fascinating, uplifting, heartbreaking and probably the bleakest, most profound history lesson ever. Highly recommended.

 

[Philip Pomper]

I'm reading the first issue of Twentieth Century Communism, a new history journal. The theme for contributions to this issue is that of leadership cults. And good it is too.

 

[Fictionist]

I'm reading the first issue of Twentieth Century Communism, a new history journal. The theme for contributions to this issue is that of leadership cults. And good it is too.

Sure it is......

 

[Philip Pomper]

I'm a professor of Russian history, I'll have you know.

 

[Fictionist]

I'm a professor of Russian history, I'll have you know.

So what? You have to work harder than that to impress me Dr Pangloss.

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

Yes, Hangover Square is standalone. The two trilogies are The Gorse Trilogy and Twenty Thousand Streets.

Patrick Hamilton is one of my favourite writers and I'd recommend everything mentioned here, especially Slaves of Solitude, which is his single best book in my opinion. Also, Craven House, an early one, which is raw but very very funny.

I hope they can get all his books back into print. There are still some that you'll only find if you want to buy a first edition for big money.

cheers

 

[Philip Pomper]

So what? You have to work harder than that to impress me Dr Pangloss.

I'm not the one alluding to things beyond my intellectual capacities.

 

[Dirty Martini]

Finished Oscar Wao.

I was entertained by it and dazzled by some of the language. It's a good performance. Overall, though, I don't know. I thought some of the authorial riffing in the second half was fucking annoying, frankly. And it's a family saga, and all family sagas end up reading the same.

Now I'm reading The Age of Grief by Jane Smiley.

 

[ringo]

The Honorary Consul - Graham Greene.

I try and only read one Green book a year otherwise I'd have done them all at once. Probably becoming my favourite author as I get older.

 

[jeff_leigh]

Tsotsi - Athol Fugard

 

[rollinder]

Spent part of yesterday pre/betrween/during Glastonbury coverage reading
Ray Badbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes (am about halfway through)
and Charlie Brooker - Dawn Of The Dumb

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Have finished "Consider Phlebas" - excellent, have now ordered "Player of Games" from Amazon

In the interim am reading "Cell" by Stephen King which I picked up at Cookham Fete book stall for 50p! A good rollicking zombie fuelled earthwide disaster novel!

 

[Roadkill]

Daphne Glazer - Goodbye Hessle Road

I'd not heard of Glazer before I spotted this in a bookshop in Hull yesterday, and I'm not aware of many novels set in the city - although I now find she's written several - so it was mainly a curiosity buy. Judging from the first couple of chapters it's really rather good.

 

[El Jefe]

reading Sweet Thursday by Steinbeck

in hospital i read It Still Moves by Amanda Petrusich, a really interesting but very partial and inevitably incomplete account of the history of americana / folk / country based on her roadtrips around the southern US

 

[DotCommunist]

Just finished Ken Mcloads first book from the 'engines of light' cycle.

Loving communist scotland


next up is 'Fathom' a book about fair play and boat races

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

Yes, Hangover Square is standalone. The two trilogies are The Gorse Trilogy and Twenty Thousand Streets.

Purchased both trilogies yesterday, and am enjoying Twenty thousand streets already.

 

[Pieface]

I'm reading Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess. He is an astonishing writer. Sometimes so erudite that I lose the meaning of what I'm reading. I cannot yet work out if this is because I'm a bit thick or he's being too clever clogs. I'm suspecting the former....

In any case it's a joy to read in fairly short bursts and it's making me feel like I'm doing some exercise in my brain

Centre of the book is a bitter old queen recounting his life in Europe during pretty much all of the 20th century. Everyone is a bit of a shit and lots of real life characters turn up doing silly things - like Ernest Hemingway shadow boxing round the edge of a dance floor while people are dancing and Ford Maddox Ford overcoming people with his gas rotted lungs from a stint in the trenches. There is plenty of joyous buggery, Roman Catholic guilt and smoking. Rampant sailors are currently featuring heavily and even though I'm making it sound like a Benny Hill sketch the grumpy old turd at the centre of it keeps it grounded. It's very funny even if it does make me feel very stupid indeed

 

[sojourner]

^ that sounds great!

 

[Thimble Queen]

A Thousand Splendid Suns and Down and Out in Paris and London

 

[Fuchs66]

Nuclear Weapons a Very Short Introduction by Joseph M. Siracusa (Oxford University Press)

s'not bad

 

[QueenOfGoths]

I'm reading Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess. He is an astonishing writer. Sometimes so erudite that I lose the meaning of what I'm reading. I cannot yet work out if this is because I'm a bit thick or he's being too clever clogs. I'm suspecting the former....

In any case it's a joy to read in fairly short bursts and it's making me feel like I'm doing some exercise in my brain

Centre of the book is a bitter old queen recounting his life in Europe during pretty much all of the 20th century. Everyone is a bit of a shit and lots of real life characters turn up doing silly things - like Ernest Hemingway shadow boxing round the edge of a dance floor while people are dancing and Ford Maddox Ford overcoming people with his gas rotted lungs from a stint in the trenches. There is plenty of joyous buggery, Roman Catholic guilt and smoking. Rampant sailors are currently featuring heavily and even though I'm making it sound like a Benny Hill sketch the grumpy old turd at the centre of it keeps it grounded. It's very funny even if it does make me feel very stupid indeed

"Earthly Powers" is possbly my favourite book, well, ever! Though I know what you mean there were times when I just lost what was happening because of his, as you say, very erudite writing style. Plus having to go to the dictionary because I didn't know the meaning of some of the words he uses. But at the same time I do love the way he uses language.

Fantastic book - I am kind of envious of you reading it for the first time because I still remember how swept away I was by it, not just by the book, the ideas, the storyline but by Burgess' skill as a writer. Just wonderful!

 

[Pieface]

Jefe has been trying to get me to read it for ages - I had a crack a couple of years ago but found it too hard. I'm obvs a tiny bit less stupid now

 

[Dirty Martini]

Purchased both trilogies yesterday, and am enjoying Twenty thousand streets already.

Once Hamilton grabs you, he never lets go. I'm really glad stuff is being republished properly. A few years ago, it was difficult to get anything, stuff would go in and out of print, even recent Penguin copies went for daft money. He deserves far more respect than that.

 

[Dirty Martini]

Finished The Age of Grief, a novella by Jane Smiley, which was good enough, nice twists of phrase. The kind of thing American writers turn out in their sleep.

Now I think I'll read The Fortress of Solitude, because I haven't read a book set in Brooklyn for what seems like weeks

 

[Dirty Martini]

Everyone is a bit of a shit ... gas rotted lungs ... joyous buggery, Roman Catholic guilt and smoking ... Benny Hill sketch ...

Sold.

 

[Pieface]

I'm kind of surprised you've not read it Martini. It's the sort of thing I can see you enjoying