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    Currently reading "The Prime of Miss Jean Bodie" and struggling with the repetition. I'm about 40% through the book and haven't learnt anything that wasn't introduced in the first 5 or 6 pages.

    Spark does describe the mind-wanderings and thoughts of pre-teen girls well, though, the walk through Edinburgh old town has been the highlight of the novel, so far, but I'm hoping it picks up a bit.

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      I'm enjoying Shalimar The Clown by Salman Rushdie. It has that joyous exhuberance but also underlying darkness of Midnight's Children.

      Dusk At Dawn by W.E.B. DuBois is the last in a trilogy that he started with Souls Of Black Folk and Darkwater, but with a 35 year spread in publication (so the first has the perspective of 1905 and this is the year before Pearl Harbor). His ability to weave his biography with the history of his era, Reconstruction to FDR, is stunning.

      David Conn's book on FIFA and David Ritz's biography of Aretha are both well crafted and perceptive. Conn seems to give Blatter some benefits of the doubt regarding whether he was deeply criminal or just corrupted by his failure to rein in the extreme greed of Havelange, Warner etc and the bribery culture that some members of all the confederations seem to have engaged in (but there are noble exceptions: Bahamas plays a key role in Warner's downfall). The English are also dirty as fuck: a Thailland friendly that is a pure bribe and willingness to hand over overseas TV rights.

      The domestic abuse that Aretha survived while producing some of the greatest music ever made makes her story even more remarkable but also sad. I hope she had some happy moments in her senior years to reflect on how much her art had changed the culture and lifted soul to an ever higher plane.
      Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 27-12-2022, 12:22.

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        Bloody hell. I've finished a book. I was starting to worry that I'd lost the ability to read. I think the last think I finished was in The beginning of 2021.

        The glorious thing that helped me was The Last Blade Priest by WP Wiles (published elsewhere as Wil Wiles). It's a really engaging fantasy novel with some nice world building, some interesting trope twists and a mountain god.

        It is sadly setting itself up for further volumes but don't let that put you off.

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          Congrats, Levin!

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            Finished Heaven and Hell last night. I'm slightly surprised it's taken two months to get through. I've started The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. I have a sort of eerie sense I've read it before, but can't remember doing so and it's not on my Books Read list, which I started at the start of 2020. It was on page 1 of my Kindle home page and when I opened it it went straight to the end of the book. That suggests my girlfriend read it, but she's insistent she's not read it ever, on my Kindle or otherwise. Most curious.

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              Originally posted by Sam View Post
              Finished The Sense of an Ending last night.
              Ah-ha! Way back in 2017. That explains that nagging feeling. No idea what it was doing back up on page 1 of my Kindle home screen in that case, but I shall leave it and pick something else forthwith.

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                The one I went with is The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken. I read a collection of short stories by her back in 2021 which was great. Enjoying this one so far. Slight Lolita vibes, but considerably less sexual.

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                  Finally getting around to Elena Ferrante. The writing really flows so I'm guessing it's a decent translation. Really liking it at halfway.

                  Just finished the 2nd of 2 crime novels from the 80s and early 90s by Marcel Montecino - Big Time and The Crosskiller.
                  Both a bit OTT ( sex and violence) at times but entertaining and with interesting characters. I liked the fact that I found one of them on a charity book exchange shelf at Carlisle station and started reading it on the train. The other, more expectedly, cost 2.88 from you know where. None of his work is on kindle, died fairly young.

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                    Oh, and while this oughtta be on the crime thread, he has no entry on stopyourekillingme.com, despite The Crosskiller selling loads and with a Stephen King endorsement on the cover

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                      Got Garth Margenghi's Terrortome and Michael Mann/Meg Gardiner's Heat 2 for christmas. Finished the former, which is as funny as you'd imagine if you know who Garth Marenghi is. Started reading Heat 2 and loving it so far. It's both a sequel and a prequel to the film (which I watched again last night).

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                        The Lion HouseThe Coming Of a King is well deserving of its plaudits. Well written, accessible books in English on Middle Eastern history aren't all that common and Christopher de Bellaigue certainly does the business. Broadly it's the story of Suleyman the Magnificent's expansion of the Ottoman Empire. But it's strength is in character description and detail. Particularly the relationship between Suleyman, and the man who became his Grand Vizier, Ibrahim, known coloquially as "The Frank." Originally a slave — it wasn't that unusual for slaves to attain high office in court, as they owed allegiance to no one of importance beyond the Sultan himself. But Ibrahim was remarkable. Originally from, what is now, Albania he spoke six languages and within a few years became arguably the most powerful man in the Empire. He and Suleyman slept together "heads touching," but the Sultan was constrained by his position. He rarely traveled beyond the palace, nor did he deal with administrative, or political issues. The Frank did all that.

                        It's easy to see why several reviewers have compared The Lion House to Hilary Mantel's trilogy on Thomas Cromwell. Not only are Suleyman and Henry VIII direct contemporaries, but Mantel and Bellaigue's books both focus primarily on their chief advisors. However Mantel was a historical novelist, Bellaigue is a journalist/historian. There's no dialogue in The Lion House, nor is there speculation. However that doesn't mean the latter is tedious or academic, it's stuffed with fascinating insights. For example writing about the Jannisaries, the most devoted of the Sultan's fighting divisions, Bellaigue notes that not only were they composed entirely of captive Christian slaves, but they were "also confirmed foodies and their commanders hang soup ladles from their belts."

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                          I finished The Giant's House last night. It's excellent. Much less sex (and fixating on it) than Lolita, in the end, even though some parts of the premise are similar. I've now started Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder by Shamini Flint. It's the first in a series, I think. So far I've read just enough to know that Inspector Singh is nearing retirement and works in Singapore, but is being flown to Kuala Lumpur for this job because the rest of his department reckon it's not worth putting one of their younger detectives on it.

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                            Elif Shafak's The Island of the Missing Trees is not her best novel in my opinion, but it was still very much worth reading. It's sort of about Cyprus but really about roots and migration and separation (an unsurprising topic given that she's been living in exile for years now ). I'm not entirely convinced by the device of having half the novel narrated by a tree, but I am coming round to it.

                            (I seem to remember that Shafak is looked down upon by the OTF collective, but I think she's fantastic)

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                              Just finished Kill Chain by Dominic Martell. It's a late 'out of retirement' return for 'ex-terrorist' Pascual Rose. Not great but a quick and easy read and good in passing on local colour (Rose lives in rural Catalonia)
                              the interesting thing I only found out after reading some of each is that the author also writes Chicago-set crime novels as Sam Reaves

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                                Originally posted by RobW View Post
                                Got Garth Margenghi's Terrortome and Michael Mann/Meg Gardiner's Heat 2 for christmas. Finished the former, which is as funny as you'd imagine if you know who Garth Marenghi is. Started reading Heat 2 and loving it so far. It's both a sequel and a prequel to the film (which I watched again last night).
                                I largely loved Heat 2 and raced through it. I'm back now on my Nixon bullshit, reading Richard Nixon; The Shaping of his Character by Fawn M. Brodie which I think was a lockdown purchase.

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                                  Not really sure if to post here, the Christmas books thread or travel writing, but as this is the most general one...

                                  After Christmas, I finally got round to one of my (September) birthday books, Jan Morris' Europe : An Intimate Journey. It's a recollection of nearly fifty years of European travel and is a series of thematically linked short essays or reflections. There are chapters on Christianity and Paganism, for example, and it ends with a discussion of the various attempts to unite Europe, from the Romans to the EU. There are smaller, more fun themes too, such as spas, tram networks, winter resorts etc. I don't think I'd ever read a whole book by Morris before, though I was familiar with her account of the gender-affirming surgery she underwent in the 70s. Really thought-provoking writer, and I should read more.

                                  I started Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet on the morning train today. 30 pages in and it's highly promising

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                                    Jan Morris's work is well worth anyone's time. There's a discussion on her book on New York somewhere upthread.

                                    I just finished White On White by Aysegül Savos (apologies for missing diacriticals.) It's a slim three character novel/novella about a young female art history student, who rents a flat from an older artist and her professor husband. It's a story that turns on its final few pages — arguably its last line. Exquisitely done, I'm both admiring and deeply envious.

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                                      There was a fascinating short Radio 4 series about the Tenzing/Hilary climbing of Everest where she was still known as James and broke the story of the conquest to the world.

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                                        Available here (there are five episodes)

                                        https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0dr5qgx

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                                          Belated thanks Ursos and G.O. for that recommendation. I'd like to hear it.

                                          I've just reached the end of Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet. When I have more time, I'll seek out the discussion that was on here a year or so back about it. I was a big fan of O'Farrell's first novel, After You'd Gone. They are very different novels in setting and character terms, but both deal very movingly with grief, and leave a huge emotional imprint, or did on me anyway.

                                          But Hamnet is so much more, the work of a writer at the absolute peak of her powers. It's a hard thing to explain, but in After You'd Gone, some of the set-ups and plot twists were obvious contrivances. You forgave them as it was a first novel, and because the emotional pull of the story managed to compensate. In Hamnet, the emotional pull is at least as strong, but there's so much more craft and subtelty of touch. And the Stratford playwright (never mentioned by name) is not the main character of the novel, yet when you get to the end, you feel as if his life's work has been fully and convincingly explained. I've read of a plan to adapt the novel for the stage, which would be something to behold.

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                                            Originally posted by jameswba View Post
                                            I've just reached the end of Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet. When I have more time, I'll seek out the discussion that was on here a year or so back about it
                                            Here:

                                            https://www.onetouchfootball.com/for...on#post2514737

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                                              I'm reading 'the Price of My Soul byBernardette Devlin out of print but available online here

                                              It's an extraordinary read.

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                                                I have quite vivid memories of her visit here in the late 60s

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                                                  So far it mixes Derry girls comedy, (and must have inspred a few anecdotes I'd have thought) with tragedy- she and her five siblings lost both their parents by the time Bernardette the second oldest was 21, and eyewitness account of the founding of People's democracy. it's very well written- or well ghosted and full of sharp insights- political and human.

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                                                    Just finished Vonnegut's Timequake.

                                                    I had started it a few years ago and wasn't in the mood, but coming back to it after seeing the Weide documentary at the cinema, it really worked for me.

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