Current Reading - Books best thread

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Very much enjoying Patrick Raddan Keefe's Empire of Pain, about the Sackler dynasty. Should say - I'm only about a quarter of the way through it, so haven't got up to the bit where they launch the drug which kicks off the lethal opioid crisis, so it's not as grim yet at it will presumably get. The shenanagins of the Arthur Sackler generation would make a bloody brilliant Dallas type drama, amazing stuff that you could barely make up. Very well written, a great read.

[Sam]

Finished Inspector Singh Investigates the other night. It's good, and I might well try out more in the series. A little overwritten at sentence level for my taste, but very enjoyable all the same.

I've now started a newly published novel that's leapt to the top of my TBR pile by virtue of being by one of my friends from university: Out of Human Sight by Sophie Parkes. It's a historical mystery based around a real-life murder that took place on Saddleworth moor in the 19th century (close to where Sophie and, coincidentally, my uncle both live). I read the first chapter and a half several years ago when she was just starting to write it, and loved it. So far the rest is living up that billing.

[RobW]

My manager gave me a copy of Class 1902 by Ernst Glaeser for Christmas, so i'm about 100 pages into that. Excellent thus far.

[steveeeeeeeee]

Currently reading a book called "Notes on an Execution" by Danya Kukafka. Serial killer counting down the hours to his execution, mixed with flashbacks from the women he encountered, not necessarily murdered, and the affect he has on them. Not normally my kind of thing, but 99p on kindle and great reviews, so gave it a go and glad I did.

[ale]

Currently reading a book called "Notes on an Execution" by Danya Kukafka. Serial killer counting down the hours to his execution, mixed with flashbacks from the women he encountered, not necessarily murdered, and the affect he has on them. Not normally my kind of thing, but 99p on kindle and great reviews, so gave it a go and glad I did.

Yea I was impressed with this story as well.

Notes On An Execution-Danya Kukafa. Another novel which works. Nature v Nurture background which allows pause for thought as to a serial killer sees his life out.

[Jobi1]

Just finished Here Again Now by Okechukwu Nzelu, a novel centred around masculinity, sexuality and grief in the British African community. It was every bit as light as that sounds. I struggled a little to connect with the writing style at times but the brutally candid way Nzelu addresses the subject matter is pretty impressive. One of those where I'd struggle to use the word 'enjoy' to describe the experience of reading it, but I certainly appreciated its scope and message, and I'm sure it'll get a fair bit of praise.

[Tony C]

I can’t see a thread dedicated to film writing, but I’m just finishing David Thomson’s The Big Screen, essentially a history of cinema but with equal emphasis on French and Italian film, not simply an American retrospective. Very easy to dip in and out of chapters at your will, beautifully and objectively written (he’s not the biggest fan of ‘On The Waterfront’ for example ) and both compelling and informative throughout. I actually loaned this copy from my local library but I notice there are plenty of copies available for around a fiver from online book outlets. Well worth it. It’s around ten years old now but it hasn’t aged in any way.

[via vicaria]

After lockdown knocked the reading habit out of me (commuting was when I did most of my reading) I've finally got into the knack of picking up and actually finishing books lately. The latest one is Epic Continent: Adventures in the Great Stories of Europe by Nicholas Jubber. It's an intriguing concept - using epic folk tales as the basis for a travelogue of sorts, looking for analogies between the modern day of certain countries and cultures and legendary tales - but the execution didn't quite work for me. The interpretation of the texts is done quite liberally at times, and certain segments of the travel aspects of the book get a little tedious at times. Jubber's not necessarily a bad writer, and is a decent travel companion in the book, but I can't help but be left feeling there was something really great waiting to be written here.

Just picked up Kapka Kassabova's latest book, Elixir: In The Valley At The End Of Time. I think there's a few OTF-ers who are fans of her previous works. It focuses on the people of a small region in southern Bulgaria, and the traditions of natural medicine and herbology, though as with her other books, it's as much about the people living in the space and their history. Am about two chapters in and while it's not as engaging so far as either Street Without A Name or Border (probably more on a par with To The Lake), there'll be something here for people who've enjoyed her previous writing. Her usual style is present although at times feels a little overdone - I found her prose more natural in her other books. Like the other books though it's making me want to visit Thrace.

[Sam]

I finished Out Of Human Sight on Saturday night. It is really, really good, and I'd say that even if I weren't friends with the author. Well worth a few of your quid, and you'll be supporting an independent publisher (see my post above, second on this page of the thread, for the link).

Not sure yet what I'll start when I go to bed in an hour or so.

[Sam]

I've gone for Ariadne by Jennifer Saint.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Neither Nabokov's Ada, or Ardor nor William Blake's Jerusalem can be described as "easy reads," but by some fluke I'm digesting both at present.


Nabokov's is my bedtime book, so it lost the toss as I can only do about ten pages a night before I fall asleep. At first I thought he was taking the piss with the scrambled geography of his alternate world. But a semi-cohesive thread slowly emerges, and by the time we get to sisters Aqua and Marina — cue instant Gerry and Sylvia Anderson earworm, do you think Vlad was a Stingray fan? — the ghost of a detectable story becomes vaguely visible.


Blake's Jerusalem has the merit of being 500 pages shorter than Ada or Ardor, but it's harder to penetrate. I'm more familiar with the author's paintings/prints than his writing but it turns out the former are helpful. For me his highly personal revelations require visual consideration before "Lincoln & Norwich stand trembling on the brink of Udan-Adan!" "Bulahoola... the forests of Entuthon-Benython"... and particularly..."Golgonooza" have any meaning at all. Fortunately drawing my own diagrams and maps helps enormously. With Blake everything that passes through his mind becomes personified. So Albion is not "England" per se, he — and he is male — is the mythic soul that might have been, or may become, England. And "Jerusalem," is his daughter rather than a city of the East. I may be totally out in left field here, but I don't really care because getting there is one hell of a trip. Wonderful, in the absolute sense of the word.

[RobW]

Been reading Dr. Janina Ramirez's Femina about the women written out of the history of the middle ages and enjoying it. Just finished the chapter about the Bayeux Tapestry and the three women depicted on it, of which, only Edith of Wessex, Queen to Edward the Confessor is identifiable. Fascinating stuff. Also bought an old Penguin copy of The Canterbury Tales as I walked past the local Waterstones yesterday. Complete rip off, and stupid purchase as I work in a massive academic library and could have just borrowed it.

[Incandenza]

Finished Sally Rooney's Beautiful World, Where Are You, a surprise find in the little free library on our block. Some of the characters are completely infuriating in parts and at the beginning I was wondering where it was going, but by the end I really enjoyed it. I might not have liked it as much as Normal People, but still got 4 stars from me on Goodreads.

Other books I've read this year:

Stanley Tucci - Taste. Eh, not bad for a celebrity memoir. Entertaining way to pass the time.

John Berger - Ways of Sight. Was speed reading this by the end, but that says more about me.

Patricia Lockwood - No One Is Talking About This. I loved Priestdaddy, and I loved this.

[Satchmo Distel]

John Berger - Ways of Seeing is also a TV series and maybe better in that format because his arguments are obviously visual.

[Incandenza]

I've read Ways of Seeing before, wanted to go further with him. Haven't watched the series yet, though.

[steveeeeeeeee]

Stanley Tucci - Taste. Eh, not bad for a celebrity memoir. Entertaining way to pass the time.

I think I've heard him read the majority of this book on Radio 4 as I was driving home from work a few years ago. It was on each week for 45 minutes, for about 6 weeks. It really benefitted from having Tucci's idiosyncratic style of delivery, and sometimes I would be laughing out loud in the car, especially the stories of his childhood. Despite enjoying it immensely, I doubt I would ever read the book.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I've read Ways of Seeing before, wanted to go further with him. Haven't watched the series yet, though.

About Looking would, for me, be the next Bergerian step after Ways of Seeing. It's an original text rather than a reformatted TV series, so hangs together better I think.

[delicatemoth]

Enjoying Apostle On The Move - A biography of Pope Paul VI by Alden Hatch ("author of The Mountbattens"). The title is providing endless hilarity as he appears to have spent most of his life in Rome. I'm up to the 30s and he seems like a decent sort so far:- "Since most of the students were from more or less affluent homes, Montini [the future Paul VI] also led them on frequent expeditions to the slums around the Porta Metronia. Carrying gifts of food, clothing and shoes, they struggled through the narrow, muddy streets..." He's had a couple of run-ins with Fascists too.

The most eyebrow-raising bit is when he is transferred from the Lombard College to the Pontifical Academy of Noble Ecclesiastics. "He ate the same coarse, badly cooked food..." HE'S IN FUCKING ROME EATING BAD FOOD. I'm wondering if this was a deliberate policy by the Church to treat their up-and-coming clerics mean to keep them keen.

[ursus arctos]

When he went to Jordan in 1964, no pope had left Italy for more than 150 years (he was also the first to visit the Holy Land (assuming that you don't count Peter)).

I was taken to see him drive by in Queens in 1965.

He suffered from succeeding John XXIII, who was revered in houses such as ours.

[delicatemoth]

Those should be in the book, it was published in 1967, and those trips may have been what gave the book its title. I found it in a 1960s display in the library, probably dug out of the reserve stock for the purpose. Last stamped out in 1989. I know it's been 15 years or so since books got stamped but I think it's a reasonable assumption that no-one borrowed it during that time, so I reckon I'm the first person to read this copy in almost 34 years.

Other WH Allen books recommended on the back include The World History of the Jewish People Volume XI - The Dark Ages 711-1096. "This is the second of the projected twenty volumes to be published." I wonder if all twenty made it to print.

[ursus arctos]

From the NYPL Research Catalog listing, it looks like they made it to Volume 8

[Etienne]

Which 8 are those, Ursus?

Obviously they didn't publish them in chronological order as delicatemoth mentions volume XI

I've found 1-7 (but not 5) and 11

1 At The Dawn Of Civilization
2 Patriarchs
3 Judges
4 The age of Monarchies: culture and society
6 The Hellenistic Age
7 The Herodian Period

[ursus arctos]

NYPL lists eight volumes in order from the first series and one (Vol 2) from the second. Evidently the latter (The Dark Ages) is also sometimes identified as Volume 11 of the first series. I can't get titles for volumes five or eight.

I believe that there may be differences between the US and UK editions.

The editor of the US edition was Netanyahu's father.

[Satchmo Distel]

Netanyahu's father famously said "The tendency to conflict is the essence of the Arab. He is an enemy by essence. His personality won't allow him to compromise. It doesn't matter what kind of resistance he will meet, what price he will pay. His existence is one of perpetual war." Thus openly racist.

His specialism was medieval Inquisition-period Spain and I can recall reading him for my PhD, in a section I was looking to write on Limpieza de Sangre. This clocks in at a mere 1384 pages:

https://www.amazon.com/Origins-Inqui.../dp/0679410651

For the history of British Jews, Cecil Roth is the person you'd want, although he died in 1970 so his work is also a period piece.

[ursus arctos]

Confirming his view that "the vast majority of Israeli Arabs would choose to exterminate us if they had the opportunity to do so", expressed sixty years earlier.

He was consistent in his racism.