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    Finished The Race To The New World today, and I've put a choice of four titles from my Kindle on my brand new proofreading Twitter, which you should feel free to vote on if you want a say in what I read next. And give me a follow if you think you'd be more interested in editing-oriented tweets than Argentine football ones.

    As I said before, TRTTNW is fantastic. Read it.

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      Shit...I have that somewhere. Unread for now...

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        As I don’t have a twitter account Sam, I’m voting here that you should read Black Sea. I’ve gushed elsewhere on otf about it, it’s just amazing. Think San B is another poster smitten by Ascherson’s great work. The Ref to Putin must be from an updated edition but, the original tagline from the early 90s runs “the birthplace of Civilisation and Barbarism” (referring to literate Greeks rubbing shoulders with semi nomadic Scythians).
        Last edited by Lang Spoon; 07-12-2018, 18:35.

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          Thanks LS. I think I learned about it from this thread, as it happens. Half Of A Yellow Sun won the vote, with Maps And Legends second, Black Sea third and Mrs Caliban and Other Stories fourth. I think I might just make these the next four books I read, and do them in that order (perhaps interspersed with a paper one as all four of these are on my Kindle).

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            Originally posted by WOM View Post
            Shit...I have that somewhere. Unread for now...
            Okay, starting TRTTNW, having just finished the magnificent Educated by Tara Westover. She's an Idaho gal who was raised by nut-bar survivalist Mormons and 'home-schooled'* for the first 20-odd years of her life. An excruciating examination of family, religion, beliefs, violence and mental illness. Gut wrenching and utterly compelling.


            *used very, very loosely

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              Currently reading Revolting Prostitutes by Molly Smith and Juno Mac, published by Verso.

              It's some of the best political writing I've read all year. The first chapters set out the authors' (both current sex-workers) positions on sex (ambivalent) and work (anti) critiquing both anti-prostitution campaigners arguments that sex-work is uniquely degrading, but also critiquing arguments put forward by some sex workers who argue sex work is empowering. Their position is a more marxist feminist position that people engage in sex work because of economic circumstances and the best way to abolish sex work is to abolish the economic circumstances that lead people to sex work. They argue that although the conditions sex workers work in are frequently dangerous, exploitative and degrading, that is true of all other low-status work - especially low-status work that is criminalised, gendered, and stigmatised.

              The third chapter "Borders" takes the analysis that they use to talk about sex work and applies it to the topics of migration and human trafficking. They argue both that fear of migration is driven, in part, by a fear of prostitution - the migrant sex worker and the migrant trafficker.

              In addressing trafficking they point out that most people who pay traffickers to cross borders do so because they want to cross borders and because they can't do so safely, they are forced into exploitative situations when they arrive. They argue that the cause of exploitation of undocumented migrants (and any negative pressure on wages for people with regular migration status) is driven by the criminalised status of undocumented people, and the debts they take on in illicitly crossing borders. They argue that anti-trafficking legislation is anti-migration legislation and that literally makes trafficking more dangerous, more expensive, and more exploitative for undocumented people who've crossed borders. It's one of the clearest articulations for open borders I've read, rooted in the pragmatic and the prosaic.

              Anyway, it's superb. I'd encourage everyone to read it. Its strength as a work of political polemic comes from the fact that, far from shying away from the experiences of the people most vulnerable to harms in sex work/"the sex industry", the arguments against criminalisation and against broader carceral logics are rooted in those people's experiences and material realities.
              Last edited by Bizarre Löw Triangle; 13-12-2018, 12:37.

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                That looks good, BLT. Must add it to my infinitesimal list.

                I'm reading 'Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging' by Afua Hirsch, which is also superb, and I'm pleased that such an important book has been on the bestsellers' lists (picked it up at Manchester airport while brexiting last weekend).

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                  I've parked TRTTNW for now because my el-cheapo used copy of Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So by Mark Vonnegut arrived. It's by Kurt's son, about his (Mark's) lifelong struggle with severe mental illness issues...while becoming a doctor....and growing up the son of a nut author....and a whole pile of other stuff. It's great and I'm flying through it.

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                    Originally posted by Nefertiti2 View Post
                    I do mean Sally Rooney, yes. Sorry, Perou. Inspired by the review in the LRB of the latest I bought “Conversation with Friends“ Imagine being able to write like that at twenty five.
                    I finally got around to reading Conversations With Friends, and I'm afraid that I really don't see what all the fuss is about.

                    It's perfectly harmless and easy enough to read, but basically nothing much happens and all the characters are unpleasant - I don't mind anti-heroes in some grand action books, but when a book has no action and is, at best, only about the characters, you really want to sympathise with at least one of them. It also hit my trigger-hate buttons by being set in a world of writers.

                    My mum also read it and described it as a "jumped up womans magazine love story" made modern by some non-traditional sexuality and some instant messenger. And I can't really disagree too much with that.

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                      I've found myself reading several books about mountains recently. It started last year when I went trekking in Nepal (I know that makes me sound like Henry Blowfeld - "it reminds me of that night in Karachi dear boy..."). I read Maurice Herzog's Annapurna. A controversial book - apparently some of the others in the team felt it overplayed Herzog's role in the expedition. Whatever the truth of that, the account of the descent still gives me goosebumps!

                      That then led a friend of mine to give me a copy of the Ascent of Rum Doodle. Which of course is an absolute hoot after reading Annapurna. One of my favourite lines in it when describing members of the fictional team is "Humphrey Jungle, radio expert and route-finder.Had been nearly as high as most..."

                      Then earlier this year I was given a copy of Into The Silence by Wade Davis. It's the history of the Mallory expeditions to Everest. The early chapters dealing with the First World War are some of the most harrowing and lump in throat stuff I've read about it. It remains at that pitch throughout and has pretty much become my book of the decade so far. Can't recommend it enough.

                      i'm coming down from the heights of the Himalayas - next up are H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald and its counterpart The Goshawk by TH White. Has anyone read either? they were given to me as a pair by a good friend of mine.

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                        If you're still in a 1950s mountain book mood, I recommend Eric Newby's A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush . It's now probably 15 years since I read it, so perhaps my memory's playing tricks, but I found it utterly wonderful.

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                          If your memory is playing tricks, then mine is as well.

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                            It occurs to me that we might not have a travel writing thread... An omission which I should fix

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                              Originally posted by Bizarre Löw Triangle View Post
                              Currently reading Revolting Prostitutes by Molly Smith and Juno Mac, published by Verso.
                              Finished this now and just wanted to reiterate how worth your time this is.

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                                One of the most enjoyable books I've read this year is "The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition - A Compendium of Knowledge from the Classical Islamic World" by Shihab Al-Din Al-Nuwayri. It's an attempt by a 14th century Islamic scholar to bring together all the knowledge in the world. The original apparently ran to more than 9,000 pages. Luckily (or not as the case may be) the Penguin Classics edition is an abridged version... top stuff.

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                                  I'm re-reading Wild West China by Christian Tyler, which is all about Xinjiang. It's divided into two parts ; the first is the region's history until 'liberation' (ie the Chinese occupation) in 1949, the second is essentially a catalogue of all the abuses that happened after that. It was published in 2003 and someone bought it for me then or the year after.

                                  It has a personal resonance for me, as I spent 18 months in Xinjiang, from summer '94 till early '96. And it must still be the most authoritative book on the region even now, but is perhaps due an update in the light of recent events and revelations.

                                  I was wondering whether this belonged in the travel-writing thread but, although Xinjiang has some of the world's most distinctive landscapes, and Tyler includes some wonderful descriptions of them, it's ultimately not a travel book.
                                  Last edited by jameswba; 24-12-2018, 10:22.

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                                    Finished 'The Outcasts of Time' by Ian Mortimer on Xmas Eve, devouring it in less than three days. First novel I've read for ages - a stonemason in the Middle Ages is about to die from the Black Plague and is contemplating going to see his beloved family one last time, weighing up the risk of infecting them. His soul then gives him the alternative option of living another six days, plague-free, and each day jumping 99 years into the future to give him the chance to redeem himself and attain a spot in eternal paradise. If that sounds an unpromising premise, don't let my shoddy summation out you off, this is a beauty of a book, especially if you're fascinated by mundane details of how people used to live.

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                                      I usually spend half of Christmas wondering what epic reading project to embark on, then by the time I've figured it out it's usually New Year's Eve. So this time around I've concentrated on something manageable but still somewhat memorable, which is to read as many of the Le Carré books my brother has left around at my mum and dad's house that I haven't read before. So this time around I did The Mission Song and Our Game. Both were pretty great, although The Mission Song felt more like a short story (about Western subterfuge in the Congo). Our Game is in his classic smouldering embers of the Cold War style, and excellent. I like the details it has of the Yeltsin era and impenetrable intrigue in the Caucasus. More please.

                                      I do find the way several of Le Carré's book cast their protagonists as essentially helpless in a rush towards a sickening reckoning a bit of a cop out, though, on a storytelling level. Much of the structure is established midway through, and then the last bit is often an extended description.
                                      Last edited by diggedy derek; 29-12-2018, 22:04.

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                                        Have just finished AJ Cronin's The Crusader's Tomb which I really enjoyed.

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                                          Have also recently enjoyed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I'm unable to articulate what it was that I enjoyed about it specifically just a lovely book to read, despite being set in the second world war.

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                                            Yeah, I quite enjoyed that as well, despite it not being my usual kind of thing.

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                                              Yep, thirded on All The Light We Cannot See, and welcome to OTF, mmm.

                                              Hello again everyone. I started Half Of A Yellow Sun before Christmas, and then my girlfriend had ten days off work and only went back today, which has played merry hell with my reading time. As today's MOTD hasn't yet been uploaded to the website I watch it on, I might read a bit more after I've had a catch up on here, although I've also got Christmas University Challenge to watch on YouTube.

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                                                Currently reading Anthony Burgess' Malayan Trilogy, which I am finding unexpectedly delightful even though I mostly hate 50s English fiction.

                                                I have basically given up reviewing individual books and just gone for year-end reviews. On the off chance you;re interested, there are links to my 2018 in fiction and non-fiction. Tl;dr: Top in non-fiction were Peter Guardino's The Dead March (re: the Mexican-American War), Lawrence O'Donnell's Playing With Fire (re: the 1968 US election), Colin Jones' Paris - The Biography of a City, Alex von Tunzelmann's Blood and Sand (Suez/Hungary 1956), Benn Steil's The Marshall Plan, Svetlana Alexeiveich's The Unwomanly Art of War and - top pick - Timothy Snyder's The Road to Unfreedom. In fiction the best books were Therese Bohman's Eventide, Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach, Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory, Matthew Weiner's Heather, The Totality and - top pick -Eshkol Nevo's Three Floors Up. All excellent stuff.
                                                Last edited by Anton Gramscescu; 04-01-2019, 09:36.

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                                                  Did you feel The Unwomanly Art of War suffered from being a Pevear and Volokhonsky joint? I only got into Chernobyl Prayer when I tried again with the Penguin edition (nothing to do with P&V but the original translation was very clunky).

                                                  I've got Boys in Zinc in my to read pile which has thankfully been translated by Andrew Bromfield who I rate due to his Pelevin translations.

                                                  I read very little last year but feel I've got back into the swing of things recently.

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                                                    Not really up on translators tbh. It read very much like Second Hand time so presumably same ones. Language is stilted, but then Russians do kind of talk like that - in literature at least. So yes it sounds odd occasionally, but in a very Russian way so it doesn;t spoil the effect

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