Now reading...

[BillF]

39 minutes ago, ejp626 said:

I find Roderick is a bit too hot-headed for my tastes.  I tend to think he deserves much of what happens to him, though it is his companion Strap who keeps getting drenched in urine.  It's a missed opportunity that Mayall and Edmondson never did a version of Smollett (here I am thinking of Steve Coogan tackling Sterne).  Anyway, I'll probably skim Peregrine Pickle, though most reviewers say it falls off sharply after the first 50 pages, and then later in the year, I'll read Humphrey Clinker.  That should be enough Smollett for me.

I recall that Humphrey Clinker threw a lot of light on the changing 18th century society and as a readable novel - yes, it was OK.

[jlhoots]

Jesmyn Ward: Salvage The Bones

[BillF]

20 hours ago, BillF said:

I recall that Humphrey Clinker threw a lot of light on the changing 18th century society and as a readable novel - yes, it was OK.

Of course, we're at a very primitive stage in the development of the novel with Smollett. If you want to get really primitive, try Defoe. I think Moll Flanders is the best. From that general period my favourite is Fielding's Joseph Andrews though - wonderful, incisive humour!

[BillF]

Back to the elder Amis - an old favourite!

[paul secor]

Richard Russo: Straight Man

I laughed a lot reading this, but there's much more than humor in it.

[A Lark Ascending]

Superb. Counterfactual tale where Roosevelt is defeated in 1940 by Lindbergh on an isolationist platform and the subsequent rise in anti-semitism. I enjoyed 'The Man in the High Castle' with a similar premise but this one really hooked me. Excellent at showing the way such extraordinary events can tear families apart internally. 

Some very clever touches - at one point after the assassination of Walter Winchell he comments that this was the last assassination of a leading public figure until Robert Kennedy was shot in June 1968. Which has you thinking 'How did that still happen at that time given the disruption to history?' And then you think 'What happened to Jack?'

Brilliant at the sort of everyday description that roots the fiction in reality - from stamp collecting to a kid getting stuck in a bathroom.  

Couldn't help thinking about the current Presidential campaign whilst reading the descriptions of the lionising of Lindbergh. 

[A Lark Ascending]

Read the first (Greek half) of this a couple of years back and then got distracted by something else. Read the Rome bit over the last week. Although I've covered a fair bit of Roman history in my time (including an excruciating two term subsidiary course in Ancient History taught by classical statues back in the 70s) I've never properly got my head round the chronology, especially during the Republic. This sorted that out (though after Hadrian is still a blur - Fox stops there). 

Did the job without being wildly exciting. I got the impression that Fox would rather be writing for academics but kept having to remind himself this was for a general reader. Like a lot of 'proper' historians, got a bit bogged down in his sources (Cicero, Tacitus etc) which put the breaks on the narrative. 

I intend to read Tom Holland's book on the Republic, 'Rubicon', soon (and his early Empire one when it comes out in paperback). He's a popular writer with a real flair for narrative drive - his book on the Persians, 'Persian Fire', was a model of popular history writing. 

[paul secor]

Christopher Morley: Parnassus on Wheels

Lightweight, but a charming story

[alankin]

On 3/17/2016 at 4:15 PM, A Lark Ascending said:

Superb. Counterfactual tale where Roosevelt is defeated in 1940 by Lindbergh on an isolationist platform and the subsequent rise in anti-semitism. I enjoyed 'The Man in the High Castle' with a similar premise but this one really hooked me. Excellent at showing the way such extraordinary events can tear families apart internally. 

Some very clever touches - at one point after the assassination of Walter Winchell he comments that this was the last assassination of a leading public figure until Robert Kennedy was shot in June 1968. Which has you thinking 'How did that still happen at that time given the disruption to history?' And then you think 'What happened to Jack?'

Brilliant at the sort of everyday description that roots the fiction in reality - from stamp collecting to a kid getting stuck in a bathroom.  

Couldn't help thinking about the current Presidential campaign whilst reading the descriptions of the lionising of Lindbergh. 

Yes that was a good one and has come to mind from time to time over the last few months of our Presidential campaign.

[A Lark Ascending]

1 hour ago, alankin said:

Yes that was a good one and has come to mind from time to time over the last few months of our Presidential campaign.

I was really impressed by 'American Pastoral' earlier in the year, my first Roth. Have 'I Married a Communist' to read in a few novels time. 

[BillF]

Novel based on biographies that explores the inner life of composer Shostakovich across several decades. 

[A Lark Ascending]

34 minutes ago, BillF said:

Novel based on biographies that explores the inner life of composer Shostakovich across several decades. 

On my list when it arrives in paperback. I like Barnes and I like Shosty. 

[sidewinder]

[erwbol]

What words come to mind when we think of God? Merciful? Just? Compassionate? In fact, the Bible lays out God's primary qualities clearly: jealous, petty, unforgiving, bloodthirsty, vindictive - and worse. Originally conceived as a joint presentation between influential thinker and bestselling author Richard Dawkins (who wrote the foreword) and former evangelical preacher Dan Barker, this unique book provides an investigation into what may be the most unpleasant character in all fiction. Barker combs through both the Old and New Testament (as well as 13 different editions of the 'Good Book'), presenting powerful evidence for why the Scripture shouldn't govern our everyday lives. This witty, well-researched book suggests that we should move past the Bible and clear a path to a kinder and more thoughtful world.

[ejp626]

I've been sidetracked by Roderick Random and Emmanuel Bove's A Man Who Knows.  (A Man Who Knows is a very weak and boring book.  If it was the first Bove I read, I wouldn't bother exploring the rest of his work, so I would certainly advise skipping it.)

I've finally started Moore's The Luck of Ginger Coffey.  I'll have a better feel for the book tomorrow.

Edited March 23, 2016 by ejp626
typo

[jlhoots]

Jo Nesbo: Midnight Sun

[ejp626]

I'm just about done with Ginger Coffey.  I have mixed feelings.  The writing is quite good and there are some good comic moments as well as a number of situations where you sort of cringe with embarrassment along with Coffey.  He's a decent enough bloke, but (and this is a fairly significant but)

 

SPOILERS

 

he has let his wife down far too many times and she decides she wants out of the marriage.  He goes back and forth on this, but ultimately decides that he knows what is best and that if his luck turns one more time she'll come back to him.  I just can't get behind this story line.  It's a lot like those movies where we're supposed to root for someone who is only one step above a stalker.  

[jazzbo]

Re-reading (though the first time I've read this in paperback)

 

 

[ejp626]

I'm supposed to be reading Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust, but I am putting that back a week.

Instead I am reading Elizabeth Jane Howard's After Julius.  The writing is quite good, though I am having trouble relating to many of the characters.  There are 5 main characters who all converge on a country house for a weekend, and each chapter is written from a different character's perspective.  It all feels a bit contrived.

[A Lark Ascending]

Fascinating account of the ad hoc imperialism of the first half of Victoria's reign up to 1861 (things got much more systematic in the latter part of her reign as powerful rivals emerged and communications improved to allow greater direction from London). The Afghan and Sikh wars, Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny and the the attack on China in the late 1850s. David tells the tale without making judgements about the imperialism except lightly in the concluding chapter. I'm just staggered that Britain has got anyone left talking to it in the rest of the world. The arrogance, brutality and downright theft is appalling. Down the years I remember several Tory spokespeople on education advocating a teaching of the British Empire to children emphasising how it was a 'good thing'. Unbelievable.  

[Leeway]

Enjoyed Hardy's The Return of the Native, but oddly could only read it in rather small segments, like a too rich dessert. 

Also read:

Vol. 4 in the Chronicles of Barsetshire.  Pretty enjoyable. Many of the Barset characters make an appearance in this one. 

[Brad]

9 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Fascinating account of the ad hoc imperialism of the first half of Victoria's reign up to 1861 (things got much more systematic in the latter part of her reign as powerful rivals emerged and communications improved to allow greater direction from London). The Afghan and Sikh wars, Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny and the the attack on China in the late 1850s. David tells the tale without making judgements about the imperialism except lightly in the concluding chapter. I'm just staggered that Britain has got anyone left talking to it in the rest of the world. The arrogance, brutality and downright theft is appalling. Down the years I remember several Tory spokespeople on education advocating a teaching of the British Empire to children emphasising how it was a 'good thing'. Unbelievable.  

Queen Victoria's Little Wars is also a good read. 

[A Lark Ascending]

5 hours ago, Brad said:

Queen Victoria's Little Wars is also a good read. 

Thanks - I now have a big gap up to (and including) The Boer War. This seems to cover it - reviews are good on Amazon. 

[ejp626]

On 3/30/2016 at 11:48 AM, ejp626 said:

I'm supposed to be reading Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust, but I am putting that back a week.

Instead I am reading Elizabeth Jane Howard's After Julius.  The writing is quite good, though I am having trouble relating to many of the characters.  There are 5 main characters who all converge on a country house for a weekend, and each chapter is written from a different character's perspective.  It all feels a bit contrived.

I really did not like the main plot points of this book as they unfolded.  A few characters were amusing, particularly this ancient Major who turns up at a dinner party (not one of the main 5 characters), but on the whole After Julius is a book to avoid.

Starting Intruder in the Dust tonight.

The library has just come through with Achebe's No Longer at Ease and Highsmith's The Price of Salt (I expected this would take another couple of weeks), so those will be next.

[A Lark Ascending]

Another excellent Le Carre. What is extraordinary about his 60s books is that for most of their length they seem to deal with petty irritabilities within bureaucracies. Acts of daring do or violence are few and far between. This one cleverly has you trying to track down a supposed defector to the Soviet Union only to turn the tables in the last 50 pages and find the disappearance has a very different motivation. Lots of exploration of Germany's post-war identity crisis and Britain's troubles facing loss of world status. And a very topical sub-theme about Britain's angling to enter the 'Common Market'. 

Edited April 3, 2016 by A Lark Ascending