Jump to content

Now reading...


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 9k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, paul secor said:

 

Robertson Davies: The Cornish Trilogy

This was such a good read that I didn't think about the length. I want to read another Robertson trilogy in 2016. Does anyone have opinions about the Salterton Trilogy?

I think it is worth reading for sure, but it is probably the lesser trilogy, in the sense that he was a better novelist by the end (Deptford and Cornish trilogy follow the Salterton Trilogy).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, ejp626 said:

I think it is worth reading for sure, but it is probably the lesser trilogy, in the sense that he was a better novelist by the end (Deptford and Cornish trilogy follow the Salterton Trilogy).

I agree.  There's a huge jump in the quality of his writing with The Deptford Trilogy.  I was studying with him at the time of the publication of Fifth Business so I figured I'd better read it.  I was shocked at how good it was.  At the time he was better known in Canada as a personality than as a writer. His earlier work was considered rather provincial and nothing I had read (which wasn't much) didn't convince me otherwise. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Toergenjev (or Turgenev, as he is called in English I think) - Collected works, Vol.01 (Dutch edition)

This volume consist of his novels; Rudin, Home of the Gentry, On the Eve and Fathers and Sons. I only read Fathers and Sons before, so this is just a pure joy to read the other novels for the first time finally. 

9789028204249.jpg&w=265&h=420

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 22 December 2015 at 1:58 PM, crisp said:

Well, it's started very well. Shaping up to be more of an old dark house mystery than a marooned train one. I tentatively recommend it.

I finished Mystery in White. A pleasant read although he didn't supply the motive or all the key characters until near the end, so trying to work out the mystery was a bit of a waste of time.

I've been reading this simultaneously:

41xO1Bqf1kL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg 

Great opening chapter and brilliantly constructed, although the police inquiry reminds me a bit too much of The Stain on the Snow, which I hated.

I've also started this (very good so far; these mystery writers seem to have been a pretty unhappy bunch):

41q%2BZB-iWkL._SX320_BO1,204,203,200_.jp

Edited by crisp
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎21‎/‎12‎/‎2015 at 3:04 AM, BillF said:

Middlemarch was one of two set books that defeated me on my English degree course with a reading list of hundreds of books. The other was Walter Scott's Heart of Midlothian.

I subsequently managed shorter novels by George Eliot.

I'm with you Bill.  I have finally crossed the finish line of Middlemarch.  It wasn't worth it.  I started out with at least a passable interest in and sympathy with many if not most of the characters.   By the end, I thoroughly disliked all of them except Rev. Farebrother and perhaps Celia.

I found Silas Marner mawkish and a bit stupid (if at least short) and strongly disliked The Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch.  I'm clearly allergic to George Eliot.  At one point, I had seriously considered reading Daniel Deronda, but I shan't torment myself a third time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

51iptMnaiYL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

No 17. Not one of the strongest in the series but an entertaining read set in the Lake District. 

senseofanending.jpg

Short novel about memory and history, how we perceive, construct and misrepresent the past. My favourite theme. Had me thinking of another novel that explores this theme, Graham Swift's 'Waterland' (one of the rare novels I've read twice). Must re-read Barnes' 'A History of the World in 10 1/2 chapters' - that one really gripped me when I first read it 25 years back.  

Edited by A Lark Ascending
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Recently finished 'Life After Life' by Kate Atkinson. Probably the best novel I read in 2015. about a woman who lives through the most turbulent events of the 20th century, including the London Blitz, and which asks: What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? She has also written some detective stories featuring Jackson Brodie which I have yet to try but, on the evidence of 'Life After Life' should be good.

 

Life After Life.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Must re-read Barnes' 'A History of the World in 10 1/2 chapters' - that one really gripped me when I first read it 25 years back.  

I'll be honest and say I didn't much care for this one.  I think I had been spoiled by Timothy Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage, which I thought was a more entertaining treatment of the topic.  If you do reread the Barnes, try the Findley as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Jazzjet said:

Recently finished 'Life After Life' by Kate Atkinson. Probably the best novel I read in 2015. about a woman who lives through the most turbulent events of the 20th century, including the London Blitz, and which asks: What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? She has also written some detective stories featuring Jackson Brodie which I have yet to try but, on the evidence of 'Life After Life' should be good.

 

Life After Life.jpg

I have that on the shelf to read (I cannot enter a book shop without buying something even if I know I'm not going to read it for a while! And when there's a 3 for 2 deal, well...they see me coming.).

The Brodie series is excellent - definitely different from the standard detective sequences. Nice music references too - Brodie is a country/Americana fan. The BBC programmes based around the series was good too, though they did mess around with the books, taking bits from one and slotting them in another.   

3 hours ago, ejp626 said:

I'll be honest and say I didn't much care for this one.  I think I had been spoiled by Timothy Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage, which I thought was a more entertaining treatment of the topic.  If you do reread the Barnes, try the Findley as well.

Don't know that one. Checking on Amazon it looks like something I might enjoy. Thanks. 

Edited by A Lark Ascending
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last night finished:

9200000031917193.jpg

Good lord, she's had some tough times, from major health issues to abusive relationships.

You don't have to be remotely interested in punk (which she refers to throughout as 'punk') to be absorbed by this book. I enjoyed it most as the tale of a woman from a difficult background trying to make it in the creative world. Her formal education was patchy yet she come across as having enormous curiosity - she makes her way through a world of more privileged and self-confident people with a mixture of insecurity and bloodymindedness, taking her own path. 

All the reviews talk of her brutal honesty and that is there in almost every chapter - you need a strong stomach for parts of it. She doesn't shy away from embarrassing things - supporting Sid Viscous's denials after he's accused of throwing a glass only to be told a year later that he did; unwittingly insulting Don Cherry on a tour bus. Most people would hide those moments away.  

Very impressive.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

51eI9OH6j4L._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Returned to this one after first reading it about 15 years ago. Published in 1987, it's in a more expansive style than McEwan's present-day pared-down mode. Although he always seems like the very clever schoolboy or graduate student, there's a great deal of interest here, not least his predictions of the state of England after 10 more years of Thatcherism. Viewed from 2016, it all seems sadly prophetic.

P.S. 13th Jan. Central theme is the Conservative Prime Minister's personal project to get a book out for parents advocating strong discipline for children. In view of today's news item, need say "prophetic"?

Edited by BillF
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, BillF said:

51eI9OH6j4L._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Returned to this one after first reading it about 15 years ago. Published in 1987, it's in a more expansive style than McEwan's present-day pared-down mode. Although he always seems like the very clever schoolboy or graduate student, there's a great deal of interest here, not least his predictions of the state of England after 10 more years of Thatcherism. Viewed from 2016, it all seems sadly prophetic.

I read that many years ago but can't remember much about it. I remember being especially taken with 'Black Dogs' - there was something about the underlying theme that really haunted me...can't for the life of me remember what it was! 

I get really confused distinguishing between McEwan, Faulks, Banks and Boyd in my memory. I've enjoyed a fair few books by all of them but if you were to give me a title I'd struggle to get the right author.  

Confessions of an absent minded man! 

Edited by A Lark Ascending
Link to comment
Share on other sites

mansfieldpark.jpg

The heroine, Fanny, is a paragon of virtue, shy, retiring, blushing, and hence, for me, rather boring; the supporting characters, having varying degrees of wickedness,  held my interest much more. Perhaps the most complex of Jane's novels, there are moments of tedium as the plot spins itself out at length. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...