*What book are you reading? (part 2)

[DotCommunist]

I have finished Ilium. Not sure what to read next. Any ideas DC?!

Ah!


missed this


Olympos is the sequel to Illium.

Or you could go for 'Sparrow' which is an enchantingly leftfield bit of Sci Fi which is steeped in Catholic stuff and martyrdom etc. Jesuits in space

Maria Doria Russel is the author.

 

[Fictionist]

I'm not certain that I'll read the sequel to Ilium, but I will have a look at the other book. I have a recommendation for you too - I'll pm you.

 

[DotCommunist]

 

[May Kasahara]

S T Joshi - The Modern Weird Tale

His analysis is incredibly flawed and he comes across as a complete twat, but I'm ploughing gamely on as he occasionally makes some interesting points. I think he needs therapy to deal with his deep personal dislike of Stephen King though.

 

[sojourner]

I thought I knew the book and the story but it wasn't quite what I expected. I hope you enjoy it.

Yeh, it was a bit of a smart arse comment by me that wasn't it? I shall read it and get back to you

 

[DRINK?]

Cloudsplitter...enjoying it thus far

 

[belboid]

started Black Swan Green last night.

Dunno why I hadn't done before - except for the fact that the protagonist is only a year younger than me and the whole thing sounds far too familiar to being 13, and who the fuck wants to be reminded of that?

well, finished it, and was finally quite disappointed. It's all very well written and that, has some lovely touches, but overall, not that exciting. Yes, I know full well that being 13 is geeky and awkward, and that the early eighties were oh so naff in so many ways.

But more importantly, the ending was crap, and obvious, and frankly almost unbelievable. Shame.

Moved onto the first Wallander book, Faceless Killers.

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Finished "Excession" - didn't enjoy it as much as other Iain M. Banks stuff but it was still good.

Just started on Val McDermid's "A Darker Domain", saw her interviewed on a BBC4 doc a while ago and thought she spoke very well and as I like police thriller fiction thought I'd give it a go. Shaping up well so far.

Also I like the fact that the protagonist is not athlectic or willowy with soft, tumbling chestnut curls that she tries to keep in check and intelligent yet sensual oval eyes but, as the character describes herself, a "wee fat woman crammed into a Marks and Spencers" suit

 

[llion]

Alun Richards - Dai Country. Rereleased classic short stories taken from both Dai Country and The Former Miss Merthyr Tydfil. Two of the best book titles ever IMO! He was a fantastic author, but isn't as well known as he should be - brillliantly crafted, poignant but tangy stories about South Wales between about the 1930s and 1970s.

 

[marty21]

Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo, I've loved his others, but I'm finding this one a bit frustrating, as I don't like one of the main characters, he annoys me

 

[Dirty Martini]

Alun Richards - Dai Country. Rereleased classic short stories taken from both Dai Country and The Former Miss Merthyr Tydfil. Two of the best book titles ever IMO! He was a fantastic author, but isn't as well known as he should be - brillliantly crafted, poignant but tangy stories about South Wales between about the 1930s and 1970s.

Never heard of him before. Sounds interesting.

 

[nicksonic]

having just finished 'if this is a man/the truce' by primo levi (based on it getting praise on this thread) i'm now reading 'in search of schrodinger's cat' which is great, if you're into physics/wanting to know how the physical world works (which reading that back is the same thing).

 

[Ceej]

Reading 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' by Jonathan Safran Foer. Initially had a bit of trouble with the structure, which is unusual, but I'm right into it now.

 

[8115]

I'm reading Seamus Heaney's New Selected poems. I keep looking at very tiny bits when I feel like it.

Dogger, Rockall, Malin, Irish Sea

The man is a genius.

 

[Bakunin]

'Lepke: The Life And Times Of America's Foremost Labour Racketeer.'

 

[ChrisC]

Pihkal By Alexander and Ann Shulgin.

 

[sojourner]

Finished Lord of the Flies this affy

I really enjoyed it. One thing that really leaped out at me though was the actual Lord of the Flies. Male. When the head was from a sow. Some kind of nod to male religion pinching female religious ideas? Interesting in a couple of ways actually, from a feminist point of view.

Love how it built to being that scary, even though I knew it was coming.

I guess readers will ask themselves, as I did, whose group would I join. And my choice would, unfortunately or otherwise, be the savages. Anyone else read it?

Your thoughts, fictionist? There's lots to say about it, stuff I didn't think about before reading it

 

[belboid]

decades since I read LotF, so I cant recall it that well, but this might interest you Soj - http://accidentalfeminist.com/2005/12/07/lord-of-the-flies-gender-bender/

 

[sojourner]

decades since I read LotF, so I cant recall it that well, but this might interest you Soj - http://accidentalfeminist.com/2005/12/07/lord-of-the-flies-gender-bender/

Thanks, ace article . The sow's head being turned into a Lord was so interesting...they hunted her when she was one of the biggest pigs, and they saw her suckling all the babies.

The 3 original boys was also interesting. Holy trinity sort of thing. And the name Simon, and what happened to him.

Freud built his theories of psychology on the male, and the writer of that article knows that. Fuck, it's something really similar to what I would have written myself

I don't object in the slightest to this being an all-male 'society' - I think that in itself is really interesting. I reckon a book like that written 20 years later may well have nodded much more substantially to homosexuality

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would

 

[belboid]

Moved onto the first Wallander book, Faceless Killers.

well that was rather cracking. Can't help but picture Kenneth Branagh as Wally, but that didn't detract too much...

Can't decide now between GB84 and The End of Mr Y

 

[Fictionist]

I didn't really enjoy the book that much Soj, I didn't feel it had a great deal to say about anything. I felt the possible Simon /Christ juxtaposition was entirely unconvincing, but your point regarding the lack of female characters is thought provoking - would that be the case if the novel had been written today? There was some odd casual racism there too, which I suspect might be defended by some as being entirely symptomatic of the time.

 

[May Kasahara]

A Dark Night's Dreaming, eds. Magistrale and Morrison. Essays on some well-known horror writers. Quality is variable, but at least none of them sounds he's writing while someone holds a turd under his nose (yes Joshi, I'm looking at you).

 

[big eejit]

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. Written at the time of the Nazi invasion and occupation of France. She died in Auscwhitz in 1942. A remarkably frank account of human frailty, cowardice and treachory - and that's the French. It's not all about weakness tho, there's some fine behaviour, but it is fascinating to read a contemporary story before history airbrushed out the embarrassing / shameful / real bits.

 

[DotCommunist]

Re-reading Peter Watts Behemoth and noticing the heavy emphasis on sadism and sex

 

[starfish]

Just starting The Animal Factory by Edward Bunker.

 

[sojourner]

I didn't really enjoy the book that much Soj, I didn't feel it had a great deal to say about anything. I felt the possible Simon /Christ juxtaposition was entirely unconvincing, but your point regarding the lack of female characters is thought provoking - would that be the case if the novel had been written today? There was some odd casual racism there too, which I suspect might be defended by some as being entirely symptomatic of the time.

But that was just something I thought about - I'm not sure that was actually Golding's aim.

Does a book HAVE to say anything about anything? Can it not be just an entertaining story? For me, it will always be about how the reader receives the story, that's where the joy lies.

Yes, there was some racism in it, most notably use of the word 'nigger' - like you say, it probably was defended as such, but that's what you get if you read older books eh?

My point about it being all-male - I kinda liked that, thought it brought the focus right down on them, and there was a hint at some homosexual behaviour (Roger, in particular - he did 'things' to Samneric that weren't actually talked about, and was also fond of that 'sharpening the stick at both ends' ), but I think had it been written more recently, it would have been more open about that.

Shame you didn't like it that much. I surprised myself liking it as much as I did.

 

[Fictionist]

Sorry Soj the juxtaposition of Christ and Simon has been made before in respect of the book, and appears to be a common reaction amongst educated readers like yourself. I do like your point regarding the lack of the female in the book - it would make for an interesting exploration! Or maybe the female does exist but within the males (Piggy for example?)although this would require an identification of what constitutes the feminine and the masculine and the values attched thereto (which also assumes that such terms or values are fixed?).

I like to get something out of books, which unfortunately means that a book has to really engage me at some level in order for me to get excited. Some friends often cite this fact as evidence of my inability to read 'for fun', which isn't true.

 

[belboid]

Can't decide now between GB84 and The End of Mr Y

grrr, Mr Y has disappeared somewhere on loan, and mrs b hasn't read GB84 yet, so I can't.

Wilkie Collins The Woman In White for me then.

 

[Fictionist]

grrr, Mr Y has disappeared somewhere on loan, and mrs b hasn't read GB84 yet, so I can't.

Wilkie Collins The Woman In White for me then.

Oh I hated that book!

 

[Dirty Martini]

I finished London Belongs To Me by Norman Collins and, after a fairly dull start, it really hit its stride. As chooch mentioned somewhere on this thread, it's not London's great vernacular novel, but it's fascinating stuff, moving, detailed very funny. If you like characters that go into Lyons's tea emporia and eat potted salmon or, like me, like that build-up-to-the-war atmosphere in fiction, give it a go.