Current Reading - Books best thread

[Sporting]

If there's a fight, I'm scarpering!

[slackster]

I fancied a light read and tried Sue Perkins memoir, Spectacles. The wife had it on her kindle already, so it was a freebie.

For those outside the UK who don't know Perkins she's best known for her comedy/light entertainment presenting telly gigs (Mel & Sue, Bake Off, pop history stuff with Giles "twat" Coren). In fact, I've always quite liked her on tv. But this was a very unreliable and selective memoir, where she plays down her private school and Oxbridge privilege, she's tried to cram in too many jokes every page, and a rather nasty and vicious streak peeks through under the bantz.

And now - having read it - I've gone right off her. Not sure that was her intention, but there it is. I'm trying to think of another autobio where that's happened, but struggling to think of one.

ps Dahl is fantastic. There's something about Walliams that sets my teeth on edge, but havent read any of his books.

[WOM]

Too Much and Never Enough, by Mary Trump. As good as you think it's going to be. She offers an intimate portrait of a terrible family, and not just from a layperson's point of view. As a Clinical Psychologist, she calls out his mental issues for what they are. Basically, he's a product of the horrible patriarch, Fred, but the cast of supporting characters is mimicked by those around him in the White House to this day. He's been fucked since the age of 3, and nothing will or can ever change (with) him. He's deeply damaged goods, through little fault of his own.

[Jimski]

Best vaguely comic current kids author that I've come across is Louis Sachar. Read him and you'll never turn to Dahl or Walliams again.

(Roald Dahl's ok, I guess, but also a little annoying, and he was never my favourite as a kid either. Walliams is worse.)

[Felicity, I guess so]

I’m currently enjoying Fred Vargas L’homme aux cercles bleus after quite a messy acquisition process. It’s the 1st novel featuring detective Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg from early 90s- all her work has been translated into English too.

So I have a long-standing habit of buying anything interesting in French from charity shops and had acquired several Vargas but felt I ought to read the 1st one first (I had read a non-series one already).

Many copies available from online booksellers but I spotted one seller was Emmaus’ librairie solidaire- I really like Emmaus charity shops so opted for that one. Next day email says ‘sorry we no longer have the copy, would you like a refund?’ ‘No, what a shame, keep the fiver’

So into next seller then, whose (cheaper) copy arrived promptly...on the same day as the Emmaus one...and a copy Ms Felicity bought in a Heaton charity shop “got you a French crime novel- haven’t got it already, have you?”

[Sam]

Haha. So Emmaus got hold of one and sent it to you anyway after you told them to keep the money? That was nice of them.

I finished The Art of Statistics last week and am now reading Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, which is the third book published in 2020 I've read this year (Hamnet and A Thousand Ships being the first and second), and the third that manages to leave the hype choking in its dust.

[Lang Spoon]

Yeah, I'm loving Hamnet at the mo.

[Felicity, I guess so]

It arrived so quickly it must have Been the original order

[Sam]

Finished Queenie a couple of nights ago. Not quite sure what to make of it now I've finished it. I very much enjoyed it, it's easy to get through and I really rooted for Queenie as a character, but it's a little wrapped up in the London media world for a novel that the reviews say (correctly in many ways) is giving a voice to the sort of character that tends to get overlooked in fiction. It's also not as hilariously funny as the reviews say it is, although when it is funny, it's very funny.

I'm now reading Hotel Arcadia by Sunny Singh. It's entertaining and page turning, but my main thought from the first 28% of it is that the Kindle edition appears to be the pre-proof, because it doesn't appear to have been properly edited. Most distractingly of all, the first chapter is mistitled '87 hours ago' when, as I worked out about halfway through the second chapter, it ought to be '67 hours ago' (the novel is about a hotel where a terrorist attack is happening, with each chapter bringing us closer to the present of the narration, and I was wondering how 20 1/2 hours could have occurred between chapters one and two, until it became abundantly clear that in fact only half an hour had gone by). There are also some jumps between the present and past tense which sometimes make some sort of sense and sometimes don't.

[Sam]

Finished Hotel Arcadia last night. Overall, while I remain baffled by the editing job on the Kindle edition, I enjoyed it. It's a good page-turner, and the issues I mentioned in my post above quietened down shortly after I wrote that post.

I've got a bunch lined up next, and it's been tricky deciding, but as I'm about to head to bed I have just plumped for Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones as the one I'm going to start now.

[Satchmo Distel]

James Baldwin: A Biography by David Leeming is a beautiful study.

[Sporting]

Finished Hotel Arcadia last night. Overall, while I remain baffled by the editing job on the Kindle edition, I enjoyed it.

You're taking your work home too much!

[Sam]

You're taking your work home too much!

I work at home.

Seriously though, I'm not. You'd notice. Maybe you wouldn't notice as much stuff as I did, but anyone would've noticed the wrong number in the title of the first chapter; it made it really confusing.

[Levin]

The Warden has started off very well. Very well indeed. I'm probably missing some of the references news and politics but they don't seem essential to have.

[Sam]

Finished Silver Sparrow today, and would highly recommend it. Tonight I'm starting Halsey Street by Naima Coster.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Warden has started off very well. Very well indeed. I'm probably missing some of the references news and politics but they don't seem essential to have.

Trollope (I assume?) is a huge comfortable hole you can fall into if you've the time and inclination.

[Levin]

Ah, yes. It's probably a title that has been used multiple times over the years.

It's constantly amusing but also has really believable behaviours and thoughts.

I'm sure he's being unfair to some of his targets but he manages to appear even handed, even when he's mocking or chiding. All the characters are completely understandable. No one is bad, or evil, or even stupid. Sympathetic, that's the word, he's extremely sympathetic with everyone, even the Arch Deacon.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Ah, yes. It's probably a title that has been used multiple times over the years.

It's constantly amusing but also has really believable behaviours and thoughts.

I'm sure he's being unfair to some of his targets but he manages to appear even handed, even when he's mocking or chiding. All the characters are completely understandable. No one is bad, or evil, or even stupid. Sympathetic, that's the word, he's extremely sympathetic with everyone, even the Arch Deacon.

That's a good description. Perhaps even more true of the Pallister novels. How and why he managed to travel the length and breadth of the country managing the postal system I've no idea, particularly as he made a excellent living from his writing.

[Satchmo Distel]

I recently read Limmy's autobiography, which is good but very dark.

[gt3]

Finished the Dalrymple/Anand co-authored history of the Koh-i-noor yesterday. First time I've read a book written by two people where each wrote half. Dalrymple (perhaps unsurprisingly) does the Middle East/Afghanistan/India half, with Anand taking over seamlessly for its history here in England. Very impressed with the research that has gone into the early history of the diamond. Also, learned a lot about the Sikh empire. There's a big section on the court in Lahore and the history of the decline of the empire after the death of Ranjit Singh and how as a result, the diamond fell into the hands of the East India Company. Given my heritage, I found that section particularly fascinating. The Anarchy, the Dalrymple history of the EIC is sitting here waiting to be read, but I thought I'd distract myself with something completely different first. So I'm just about to start The End of Everything by Katie Mack - it's a meditation on the various ways the universe might end.

Hopefully, I'll have finished it before it does end.

[Sporting]

Are there any/many co-authored fictional books?

[Levin]

Fantasy has a history of it. Although, both examples that spring to mind are Pratchett's for half.

That Koh-i-noor book sounds interesting. I always look at Indian and Chinese history books when I'm in a bookshop. It's a real blind spot for me historically. But I make a point of looking at bibliographies and they all tend to be based on English language work, with maybe a few translated sources. Am I cutting my nose off to spite my fave or should I be annoyed at the apparent lack of histories published in the UK that come from the locations being studied?

[elguapo4]

Are there any/many co-authored fictional books?

Stephen King has written a couple with Peter Straub, and at least one with his son. Of course, if rumour is true, up to four people write some of James Patterson's stuff.

[gt3]

Fantasy has a history of it. Although, both examples that spring to mind are Pratchett's for half.

That Koh-i-noor book sounds interesting. I always look at Indian and Chinese history books when I'm in a bookshop. It's a real blind spot for me historically. But I make a point of looking at bibliographies and they all tend to be based on English language work, with maybe a few translated sources. Am I cutting my nose off to spite my fave or should I be annoyed at the apparent lack of histories published in the UK that come from the locations being studied?

Yes you are Levin. Anything by William Dalrymple re India and Afghanistan is worth reading. And he uses alot of non English sources.

[Sam]

Off to bed now, and I'll be finishing Halsey Street in the next twenty minutes or so. Another one that gets a glowing recommendation.

Then I'll start The Turn of the Screw, because we're watching The Haunting of Bly Manor over this long weekend and I found it on Project Gutenberg.