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    Current Reading - Books best thread

    just spent the weekend reading Philip Kerr's March Violets and the pale criminal. Stunningly brilliant books and Bernie Gunther is a great creation. A real and very scary sense of lawlessness created in Nazi Germany and brilliantly counterposed with normal life carrying on and the cynicism of the berlin people.

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      Current Reading - Books best thread

      Why at Last! wrote: I've just read Le Carre's The Honourable Schoolboy, what with being about to go to Hong Kong. And you know what? I really liked it. I hadn't read him for years; although I loved The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and am a sucker for a good Le Carre adaptation, I'd somehow got it into my head that most of his books weren't up my alley.

      And I can see why: there's a lot wrong with them. The tradecraft stuff goes on and on, and I'm forever getting my bearleaders mixed up with my lamplighters. The dialogue often lapses into "Damn it, John!" territory. And his female characters, with the exception of the excellent Connie Sachs, are (as it were) ciphers, there to provide reasons for the male spies to do plot-servingly unprofessional things.

      But for all that: what a page-turner the thing was. Four-hundred odd pages and they flew by. I'm getting Smiley's People now.
      I like early Le Carrés - the crime ones and the spy stuff with Smiley; it's all men in macs sitting in damp, cold cars, poorly-lit cities and doomed individuals caught up in situations beyond their control, manipulated to their deaths by calculating men in offices. And Smiley, obviously, who is a great creation (I admit I quite like the tradecraft). The trouble is he invariably ends up at some point sitting in a crappy pub south of the river, having a sandwich, and I get a longing for a rubbish, old-fashioned English sandwich with squidgy white bread.

      Some of the post-Smiley ones sometimes seem to me to have an occasionally interchangeable protagonist who's a bit too obviously Le Carré - or the ideal of how he'd like to see himself: a floppy haired, loose-limbed charmer, a philanderer who women can't keep their hands off and who happens to have become a spy.

      But you can be reasonably sure you won't throw them out the window in despair at the overall quality of the writing, so I tend to buy one now and then, despite this.

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        Current Reading - Books best thread

        I'm just back from a longish holiday, during which I managed to knock over loads of books.

        The great

        'The Emperor of All Maladies' by Siddhartha Mukherjee, a beautifully written, endlessly fascinating and surprisingly powerful history of cancer and cancer treatment. I can't recommend it enough.

        The good

        The aforementioned 'Art of Fielding', which is an excellent coming of age type novel if your tastes lie in that direction. Some lovely baseball bits too.

        'Bird Sense' by Tim Birkhead, which I think even the non-twitchers of OTF would enjoy. A short and eminently readable discussion of the ways in which birds experience the world. A bit speculative, but filled with fascinating odds and ends.

        'The Room' by Emma Donoghue, which transcends its gimmicky setup and had me wishing my flight would last a bit longer so I could finish it without a break.

        'The Tiger's Wife' by Tea Obreht - try to avoid looking at the author photo of the painfully young and talented Obreht. Depressing.

        The disappointing

        'Bicycle Diaries' by David Byrne - a bit haphazard and thrown together. Worth reading if you're a fan (of bikes or Byrne), but go in with lower expectations than I had.

        'Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?' by Jeanette Winterson - Mildly diverting at best.

        'Broken Harbour' by Tana French - Overlong, self-consciously moody and with a plot that felt paper thin. A real let down.

        Trying to catch up on Australian books now - Fiona McGregor's 'Indelible Ink' is shaping up very well indeed so far.

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          Current Reading - Books best thread

          Speaking of Aussie books, has David Kettle done anything recently? Haven't seen anything since Elephant Gnosis. Lazy bastard.

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            Current Reading - Books best thread

            Is he Australian? I've never even heard of him.

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              Current Reading - Books best thread

              A few recent books:

              "The Yips", Nicola Barker. Utterly loopy. Mad dashes across larger-than-life characters. Reads like a very entertaining farce, but given past form with "Darkmans" and as I'm only about halfway through I'm assuming there's a deeper plot or point to dig out.

              "Backroom Boys: The Secret Return Of The British Boffin", Francis Spufford. Despite the godawful title, a fairly sober history of some examples of British engineering, technology and scientific achievement (mapping the genome, rocket development, writing "Elite", etc). The choice of examples is oddly eclectic and a bit disjointed for it - it feels more like a sequence of magazine articles. Nicely crafted, though, managing detail without getting too dry. (But I preferred his "Red Plenty".)

              "When The Lights Went Out: Britain In The Seventies", Andy Beckett. As per the other thread. Really enjoyed this. I came out feeling both educated and entertained. In contrast to Spufford, manages to draw an disparate range of subjects (the social contract, Milton Keynes, Grunwick, Gay Liberation Front) into something more complete.

              "Khartoum", Michael Asher. History of Gordon at Khartoum, the events leading up to his demise, and the eventual reclamation of Sudan. Interesting inasmuch as I knew nothing of the personalities (who all seem variations on stereotypes, or maybe they were the stereotype-defining archetypes) or the politics (Gladstone's utter relucatance to get drawn into Sudan, his own Vietnam). But beyond that the descriptions of the Mahdi's politics and background, and the various bloody battles, started blurring into one after a while.

              "Railsea", China Mieville. Lovely stuff. You wouldn't assume 'young adult' novel, although it's less dense and certainly shorter than most of his other stuff. Moby Dick with trains; boy finds his destiny riding an ocean of train tracks, where the ground is teeming with deadly life, hunting a giant, train-wrecking mole.

              "Main Battle Tank" (Niall Edworthy), "The Indian Mutiny" (Julian Spilsbury), "Crimea" (Orlando Figes). Airport histories. None left much of an impression.

              "Dead Inside: Do Not Enter: Notes from the Zombie Apocalypse" and "Megacatastrophes" (David Darling & Dirk Schulze-Makuch) and "Post Everything" (Luke Haines). Did not finish. The first was dreadful (zombie screenshot epistolary, hard to read and no imagination), the second I wanted to like but it didn't engage, and Luke Haines' ego just annoyed me after a while (I preferred his first volume, but couldn't say why). Thank god for Amazon refunding Kindle purchases.

              Still to read:

              "Zoo City", Lauren Beukes
              "The Read Mad Men: The Remarkable True Story Of Madison Avenue’s Golden Age", Andrew Cracknell
              "The Chemickal Marriage", Gordon Dahlquist (I don't have high hopes, but am wondering if he can recapture his "Glass Books Of The Dream-Eaters" form)
              "Lions, Donkeys And Dinosaurs: Waste And Blundering In The Military", Lewis Page. Having read some of his stories on The Register I have a horrible feeling this could be a Daily Mail-esque rant and a waste of my time (despite being sold as "Bad Science for the military").

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                Current Reading - Books best thread

                William Gaddis - The Recognitions

                About 400 pages in, I am in awe of this book.

                I can't think of another novelist in his or her early 30s who created something so accomplished on this scale. Not that it's a daunting read by any means: the prose is smooth and easy throughout, and really funny, even as it animates ambitious, resonant ideas.

                The experience of reading it is like looking at a constellation. Every page includes an illumination that connects with another elsewhere in the book, but with such lightness of touch it's always a pleasure, never a strain. Probably because the central idea is such a simple one - forgery - that turns out to have far-reaching implications. On every page there's a little delight of - yep - recognition.

                I reckon Amor would love this, you know.

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                  Current Reading - Books best thread

                  gyp wrote: Is he Australian? I've never even heard of him.
                  English emigrant i think, very small press

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                    Current Reading - Books best thread

                    Enjoying a classic right now "Hamish's Mountain Walk" by Hamish Brown. It's about a chap doing all the Munros in Scotland in one go.

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                      Current Reading - Books best thread

                      LL, thanks for the heads up. I can't wait to find out whether you're right. I've heard of Gaddis, and The Recognitions, but never read anything by him. As soon as I've finished Barchester Towers, and my good friend Stephen Miller's new novel, The Messenger, (s'cuse the blatant plug) I'll get my hands on a copy.

                      I've been gorging on fiction for the first time in ages. Aside from Trollope, who I'm re-reading with more enjoyment than I did the first time, I've consumed a bunch of mysteries. The best of them include, Jo Nesbo's Phantom, Imogen Robertson's surprisingly tasty Crowther and Westerman series, and Megan Abbott's excellent Bury Me Deep. These are worthy of proper reviews on the mysteries thread — especially the Abbott — but I don't know if I'll get around to it. I've also been drawn unconsciously towards, kids/young adults books; Puck of Pook's Hill, The Box of Delights, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. All well worth reading, especially the last two.

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                        Current Reading - Books best thread

                        I love Haroun and the Sea of Stories, a really magical book. It remains the only Rushdie book I've read though.

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                          Current Reading - Books best thread

                          The Player-Piano That Never Got Off The Ground sounds like the worst children's book ever.

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                            Current Reading - Books best thread

                            Speaking of children's books, I just finished Making Bombs for Hitler, by Marsha Skrypuch. Fictional, but based on real first-person accounts, it's about Polish Ostarbeiters being imprisoned and working in munitions factories from the age of 10 onward.

                            Probably best for 12, 13, 14 year olds. (Mrs WOM is a teacher, and left it lying around).

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                              Current Reading - Books best thread

                              How are those books on Rome coming along?

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                                Current Reading - Books best thread

                                10^7 guests wrote: I love Haroun and the Sea of Stories, a really magical book. It remains the only Rushdie book I've read though.
                                I loved it too, particularly its punningness, 'Butt the Hoopoe' and so on. It's always been one of my son's favourite books — he encountered it in his early teens and rereads it at least once a year I think. This year we traded "must reads" around the time of his birthday, I sent him Catch 22 and he responded with Haroun.

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                                  Current Reading - Books best thread

                                  Just finished reading Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, read it in a day, a real page turner and written in a very reader friendly way, anyone else read it?

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                                    Current Reading - Books best thread

                                    Gave up on Eggers after he wasted an excellent idea for a novel in You Shall Know Our Velocity. Also someone whose judgement I trust told me that his first book was really really annoyingly bad (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.).

                                    And, to be honest, I find there's really something pretty annoying about Eggers in general.

                                    But I'm glad you enjoyed this one!

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                                      Current Reading - Books best thread

                                      I'm currently reading 'Diamonds Behind My Eyes' by Nicola Pagett. An account of her diagnosis with bipolar disorder in the mid 90's. She became obsessed with Alistair Campbell and was convinced that he was behind evey mirror and was watching her every move. She started setting fire to parts of her house in order to communicate with him along with writing long letters to him that she sent on a daily basis. All of this happened while she was starring in a production of the brilliant Joe Orton play 'What The Butler Saw'. It's a really moving and compelling book about someone slowly cracking up. Quite difficult to read in places. She's incredibly honest.

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                                        Current Reading - Books best thread

                                        Zeitoun is great. Highly recommended, and I've never read anything else by Eggers. From the little I know of his other work, this book isn't at all like those.

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                                          Current Reading - Books best thread

                                          I think I'd feel short-changed if Alastair Campbell dominated my (thankfully hypothetical) hypomanic episodes. Some people see angels.

                                          Well, I'm 100 pages from the final shore of The Recognitions. I'm not going to lie: two or three 50-page chunks were testing (boring and apparently irrelevant to the rest) but on the whole it's remained brilliant.

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                                            Current Reading - Books best thread

                                            I squeezed in a Muriel Spark the other day too: The Ballad of Peckham Rye . Superb, vertiginous storytelling that captures London around 1960 really well in passing.

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                                              Current Reading - Books best thread

                                              Lucia Lanigan wrote: Well, I'm 100 pages from the final shore of The Recognitions. I'm not going to lie: two or three 50-page chunks were testing (boring and apparently irrelevant to the rest) but on the whole it's remained brilliant.
                                              I downloaded the free preview to my Kobo and it's enjoyable. Knowing how I read, I just don't think I have the stamina for such a long book. Maybe just save this one for prison.

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                                                Current Reading - Books best thread

                                                Recent reading (on a fiction roll at the moment):

                                                "Zoo City", Lauren Beukes. Enjoyable urban alternate reality noir novel about a Johannesburg slum dweller, her animal familiar (the sign of guilt all criminals bear), and her hunt for a missing pop star.

                                                "The Read Mad Men: The Remarkable True Story Of Madison Avenue’s Golden Age", Andrew Cracknell. Not bad history of the post war genesis of the BBDOs of this world. But the "Mad Men" links are forced and tenuous, and interesting as the history was it didn't really come alive.

                                                "The Chemickal Marriage", Gordon Dahlquist. Final book in the "Glass Books Of The Dream-Eaters" trilogy of penny dreadful-alikes. Not as good as the first, better than the second, turgid and overcomplicated in places but still an enjoyable potboiler of sabres, gunpowder plots and nefarious cabals of mystical alchemists.

                                                Ben Aaronovitch's "Rivers Of London" trilogy. Enjoyed these. Uncomplicated, violent, Mieville/Gaiman-lite series about a young plod inducted into the world of the Met's arcane unit for dealing with monsters, vampires, wizards, etc. The plots are patchy and the pacing wonky (particularly in the second and third books), but he's done his research and clearly loves the city. His re-telling of its history comes through more thrillingly than the story in places. I'll be looking forward to the next three books he's contracted to write.

                                                Currently reading:

                                                "Supergods", Grant Morrison. Okay so far. I just don't think I share his clear affection for the history of superhero comics.

                                                To read:

                                                "Ready Player One", Ernest Cline
                                                "The Sisters Brothers", Patrick De Witt
                                                "Constantinople", Roger Crowley

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                                                  Current Reading - Books best thread

                                                  Crusoe wrote:
                                                  "Ready Player One", Ernest Cline
                                                  Cline lives right around the corner from me. He has a DeLorean. I've been meaning to read his book simply for those two reasons.

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                                                    Current Reading - Books best thread

                                                    Jimski wrote: Gave up on Eggers after he wasted an excellent idea for a novel in You Shall Know Our Velocity. Also someone whose judgement I trust told me that his first book was really really annoyingly bad (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.).

                                                    And, to be honest, I find there's really something pretty annoying about Eggers in general.

                                                    But I'm glad you enjoyed this one!
                                                    That title put me off reading him, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, but glad I read Zeitoun.

                                                    Reading the Gladwell books at the moment, some interesting stuff in them.

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