Now reading...

[alankin]

Elmore Leonard - Pronto

[crisp]

You surprise me Crisp. Those three novels, published collectively as 'Smiley vs Karla' are easily my favourite Le Carre's and are generally regarded as not only his best work but the best of the genre. While they all have complex plots I never found them particularly difficult to follow, just superb storytelling.

Perhaps because I'm a journalist, I'm rather into simple, solid sentences these days, so perhaps that's part of the problem I had with Tinker. As I said, I didn't read the others, although I started Schoolboy before abandoning it. I'm currently reading Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge, which has a complicated structure and grapples with some quite ineffable themes but is a masterpiece of clarity. The odd Oxford comma aside, each sentence is beautifully composed.

[jazzbo]

Maugham was an awesome writer. I need to re-read some of his novels.

[crisp]

This my first Maugham, though I've long been aware of his work. I also have Of Human Bondage lined up. Which ones are your favourites?

[A Lark Ascending]

Of Human Bondage is superb. I did it for 'A' Level in 1972-3..and still enjoyed it!

[BillF]

Elmore Leonard - Pronto

Must try that one. Just finished this:

[jazzbo]

I need to read that one day. I've seen two movies adapted from it, and enjoyed them both!

[Royal Oak]

Le Carré's latest.

Bill - you're obviously a big fan. I am currently reading "Tinker Tailor" on the recommendation of my wife. I am bored with it - none of it makes sense to me. What am I doing wrong?

You're doing nothing wrong. LeCarre was in his depths by then. His best are his earliest 5 or so novels, and he's written better ones (like The Night Manager) in later years.

I couldn't follow Tinker either. Struggled to the end then got rid of the copies of The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People that I had been planning to read next. I consoled myself while reading Tinker with spotting instances of bad grammar and poor sentence construction. A pity, as I liked The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.

You surprise me Crisp. Those three novels, published collectively as 'Smiley vs Karla' are easily my favourite Le Carre's and are generally regarded as not only his best work but the best of the genre. While they all have complex plots I never found them particularly difficult to follow, just superb storytelling.

Part of the problem may be that Le Carré deliberately sets out to mystify the reader as part of his narrative method. Very often his central characters don't know what's going on themselves, particularly in the earlier parts of the books. His use of secret service jargon ("lamplighters" etc) without explanation is another factor. But all gets resolved eventually.

My wife kept telling me to stick with it, but it continued to bore me. I already do enough stuff which bores me, so it's been ditched.

Now reading Nelson ALgren's "Man With The Golden Arm"

Edited February 16, 2012 by rdavenport

[jlhoots]

John Burdett: Vulture Peak

[Jazzmoose]

Of Human Bondage is superb. I did it for 'A' Level in 1972-3..and still enjoyed it!

I'm trying to rememver if I've ever heard a more positive review of a book in my life; don't think so.

[A Lark Ascending]

Of Human Bondage is superb. I did it for 'A' Level in 1972-3..and still enjoyed it!

I'm trying to rememver if I've ever heard a more positive review of a book in my life; don't think so.

Actually, 'A' Level was quite encouraging.

The downer was two terms doing an English literature subsidiary at university. We read a book and then went to a lecture where a) it was assumed we'd read everything else by the author and his/her contemporaries and b) we were told why we shouldn't have enjoyed it.

I was relieved to get to 100% History in the latter part of my first year.

Edited February 17, 2012 by A Lark Ascending

[alankin]

Donald E. Westlake as Richard Stark - The Mourner

Edited February 17, 2012 by alankin

[crisp]

I already do enough stuff which bores me, so it's been ditched.

Well put. One shouldn't be afraid of abandoning books one finds dull just because they are highly rated.

Now reading Nelson ALgren's "Man With The Golden Arm"

I liked this one, although it's a little stodgy; it could have done with an edit. If you enjoy it, I recommend you try A Walk on the Wild Side, which is much better.

Edited February 17, 2012 by crisp

[Royal Oak]

I already do enough stuff which bores me, so it's been ditched.

Well put. One shouldn't be afraid of abandoning books one finds dull just because they are highly rated.

Now reading Nelson ALgren's "Man With The Golden Arm"

I liked this one, although it's a little stodgy; it could have done with an edit. If you enjoy it, I recommend you try A Walk on the Wild Side, which is much better.

I ordered them both at the same time. I must say, "Wild Side" was the one I originally searched for, but decided to buy the pair.

[jazzbo]

Alternating between "The LOST Encyclopedia" and the book within the Louis Armstrong "Ambassador of Jazz" box set.

[paul secor]

Ian Rankin: Resurrection Men

Edited February 18, 2012 by paul secor

[TedR]

Isabel Wilkerson - The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

[Leeway]

[Jazzmoose]

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea for the first time since sixth grade. It's better than it has any right to be, but I'm still trying to figure out why H.G. Wells gets credit for starting SF...

[ejp626]

I wrapped up Banville's The Sea. Flashes of Ford Maddox Ford's The Good Soldier towards the end. Not sure I felt they were earned. In general, I wasn't particularly moved or even interested in this book. At least it was short. Pretty inconceivable that it won the Booker.

I am enjoying David Bezmozgis's The Free World considerably more. This is a novel about the movement of Soviet Jews towards other countries in the late 1970s, primarily Israel, U.S. and Canada. The family at the heart of this novel is waiting out their time in Rome until they get clearance to enter Canada. Bezmozgis's own family chose this route (he resides in Toronto), though I don't know if this is lightly fictionalized version of his personal history or he just takes this migration as a starting point for inventing new characters out of whole cloth. I'm leaning towards the latter.

[Morganized]

Just polished off Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin, which I loved. Thinking I'll tuck in to another Irish-American novel next: perhaps Tom Kelly's Sandhogs.

Just started this one. So far so good.

[Leeway]

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea for the first time since sixth grade. It's better than it has any right to be, but I'm still trying to figure out why H.G. Wells gets credit for starting SF...

I assume you mean why Wells rather than Verne?

[jazzbo]

We all know it was Mary Shelley.

[jlhoots]

Eleanor Henderson: Ten Thousand Saints

[Jazzmoose]

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea for the first time since sixth grade. It's better than it has any right to be, but I'm still trying to figure out why H.G. Wells gets credit for starting SF...

I assume you mean why Wells rather than Verne?

Nope. I meant Wells. Verne should get the credit.

As for Shelley, I fall into the 'anti-science fiction' doesn't count camp. Yeah, I know it's a cop out...