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    Current Reading - Books best thread

    Nomad, the new Alan Partridge, is very funny. Am working my way through the audiobook and enjoying it thoroughly.

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      Current Reading - Books best thread

      Just finished my birthday present, the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
      Absolutely rushed through it, 'cos it's done as a play (as advertised) , so seemed odd, with all that spare space on the pages - a bit like this new forum layout; but better...

      But actually enjoyed it, and obviously will be made into a film at some time.
      Some nice approaches, a bit "timey, whimey" , I can see them getting Moffat in to ruin the film script on this.

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        Current Reading - Books best thread

        Couple of recent books, both worth a look if these fall in your respective areas of interest:

        Belarus by Andrew Wilson. Getting good books on Belarusian history (particularly recent) is difficult, and there's much in this book that explains why (much of which relates to Belarus' historic and ongoing identity crisis). Wilson provides a pretty good window onto why Belarusian nationalism has rarely flared, and only briefly when it has. Perhaps a bit too much repetition about how Lukashenka engineers his elections, but overall a good read and a much-needed book in a thin field.

        I do take a little umbrage with the subtitle 'The Last European Dictatorship', as it seems like a bit of a cheap grab for casual readers, which the book really isn't that suitable for (it's a fairly dry read, particularly for the Lukashenka-era stuff, so would probably put them off)

        Albania by Clarissa de Waal. Read this as I'd found The Accursed Mountains by Robert Carver interesting, despite Carver being an absolute prick. Luckily de Waal is a much better companion, and much more understanding of Albanians (even if she does have the anthropologist's habit of seeing them in fieldwork terms too often). Having a female perspective on early transition Albania is also very interesting. Much of the book is devoted to the north around Mirdita, but it still presents a good picture of 1990s Albanian society. I'd give this a shout ahead of Carver's book, even if his does give a more comprehensive overview of the whole country. He's just such a bellend.

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          Current Reading - Books best thread

          I recall stating on a different thread that 'The Accursed Mountains' was self-indulgent dogshit.

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            Current Reading - Books best thread

            I probably agreed with you there. It's frustrating because the setting, the people, it's all very good and there's some genuinely interesting stuff in there. But by Christ, it's difficult to get past Carver.

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              Current Reading - Books best thread

              Just finished American Heiress by Jeffrey Toobin, about the kidnapping and saga of Patty Hearst. Really entertaining, and she is a pretty fascinating figure. I was only really aware of the broader story of her and the SLA, but not the whole timeline. I remember having a book of historic LA Times front pages when I was a kid, and remember seeing the ones about the SLA/LAPD shootout in South Central, but didn't know how that fit into the kidnapping.

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                Current Reading - Books best thread

                Incandenza wrote: If you enjoyed that, Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes is a similar book, on American indie movies of the 80s and 90s.
                Based on your track record for recos, I've ordered the above. Just finished Peter Biskind's sequel to Easy Riders, Raging Bulls called Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film. It's fantastic, as well. The one takeaway; don't get involved, under any circumstances, with Harvey Weinstein. And Robert Redford is a bit of a cunt.

                Am now into 26 Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film by Alexandra Zapruder. A pretty fucking specific book if ever there was one, but it's interesting going so far.

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                  Current Reading - Books best thread

                  Nice! Now I'm worried that I'll let people down.

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                    Current Reading - Books best thread

                    WOM wrote:
                    Originally posted by Incandenza
                    If you enjoyed that, Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes is a similar book, on American indie movies of the 80s and 90s.
                    Based on your track record for recos, I've ordered the above. Just finished Peter Biskind's sequel to Easy Riders, Raging Bulls called Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film. It's fantastic, as well. The one takeaway; don't get involved, under any circumstances, with Harvey Weinstein. And Robert Redford is a bit of a cunt.

                    Am now into 26 Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film by Alexandra Zapruder. A pretty fucking specific book if ever there was one, but it's interesting going so far.
                    Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes is indeed excellent. I've been reading Larry McMurtry. face the excellent Lonesome Dove and then the odd, but no less wonderful essay Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen.

                    I'm now reading Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert which is also very good. the Subtitle is A new history of global capitalism and that's about what it does. How interconnected the world was in the 19th Century- in 1862 between half British exports were cotton yarn or cloth , and between a fifth and a quarter of the population depended on the industry. Slavery,industrialisation, The Civil War,globalisation and the futures market, all came from cotton.

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                      Current Reading - Books best thread

                      Incandenza wrote: Nice! Now I'm worried that I'll let people down.
                      That's your cross to bear, sunshine. Fuck this up and I'll never read the Toobin book.

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                        Current Reading - Books best thread

                        Toobin or not Toobin, that is the question.

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                          Current Reading - Books best thread

                          .

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                            Current Reading - Books best thread

                            A better page turner than a Toibin, fer sure. Poor old Colm is practically a National Treasure now, and his work has curdled accordingly.

                            Come to think of it, he's almost an Irish parallel of Ian McEwan these days. Saoirse Ronan featured adaptions of overcooked late period potboilers, indulgently edited rambling brain dumps given space in the almost sincerely ("as relevant, as vital as ever.." coughs the review) deferent weekend broadsheet supplements.

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                              Current Reading - Books best thread

                              The Victorians by A N Wilson. Only 60 pages or so in so far, but it's utterly brilliant.

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                                Current Reading - Books best thread

                                "The Adjacent", Christopher Priest.

                                Fictional account of complicated relationships across time and alternate realities, from a dystopian, WMD-ruined, hurricane-swept Islamic Republic of Great Britain* to World War II airfields to an alternate fantasy world. Characters and places with similar names turn up all over the shop, events are retold from different perspectives with different outcomes, all linked by a concept of 'adjacency'. Sort of a love story (although a bit clunky in paces, and god knows why the main character seems so irresistible to women), very reminiscent of David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas) although not as evocative. Still managed to be a very enjoyable read, even if I'm not sure what the overall theme or message was.

                                https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/26/adjacent-christopher-priest-review

                                *Anything like that would normally be a red flag to avoid, but it's played straight, really a bit of an irrelevant background distraction rather having any plot significance whatsoever.

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                                  Current Reading - Books best thread

                                  26 Seconds: A Personal History of The Zapruder Film by Alexandra Zapruder.

                                  Does what it says on the tin, for sure. AZ is the granddaughter of Abe Zapruder, the Dallas dressmaker whose home movie provides the defining visual record of the Kennedy assassination. It's fascinating, not just from the perspective of its impact on the family itself (which was considerable), but in what it reveals that was lost to time. For example, the film was never shown broadly (i.e. on network TV) for over 12 years. She also tackles the topics of conspiracy, the analysis of the film, the loons that have written tomes about the 'fake' film and whatnot.

                                  It's a great read, but as such a specialized subject in a good deal of detail, not for everyone.

                                  Also, about four or five years ago, I got into the habit of sending authors a quick note through their personal/publisher page if it exists. I figured maybe they got positive feedback from readers, and maybe they didn't...but would't mind hearing it. I got a lovely and grateful note back from AZ, as I have from *almost* every author I've written to.

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                                    Current Reading - Books best thread

                                    WOM wrote:
                                    Originally posted by Incandenza
                                    If you enjoyed that, Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes is a similar book, on American indie movies of the 80s and 90s.
                                    Based on your track record for recos, I've ordered the above.
                                    Done. Great read. Not as easy going as the Biskind books, but much more specific and personal. Good tales of Spike Lee, Kevin Smith, Linklater and all the usual suspects in indie film.

                                    Thanks for the tip.

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                                      Current Reading - Books best thread

                                      Finally finished A Brief History of Seven Killings on the coach back from Iguazú on Friday night. Bloody hell, it's good. Took a long time to read, but it was worth it.

                                      I am now reading Jonathan Wilson's Angels With Dirty Faces, which I'm getting through just a tiny bit more quickly. It's also very good (not that it'll be much of a surprise to hear me say that).

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                                        Current Reading - Books best thread

                                        I had Angels With Dirty Faces on my Christmas list, but I didn't get it - now I've got such a huge 'to be read' pile (haven't counted, but possibly getting close to 100 books) that I can't see me getting round to buying it for a while. Might as well wait for the paperback.

                                        I just read The First Bad Man by Miranda July. I almost gave up on it after 10 pages because the characters were so irritating (tough to avoid when you set your books in California), but then it took a weird twist and remained weird throughout, in an interesting way.

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                                          Current Reading - Books best thread

                                          Was I the last man alive not to have read The Old Man And The Sea? If so, it's been rectified. What a marvellous work. In 100 pages, Hemingway convincingly pulls into a day in a man's life and leaves you better for it.

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                                            Current Reading - Books best thread

                                            WOM wrote: Was I the last man alive not to have read The Old Man And The Sea?
                                            Nope.

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                                              Current Reading - Books best thread

                                              Hah. You tell me who the illiterate bastard is and I'll beginning the ridiculing.

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                                                Current Reading - Books best thread

                                                Just started 'Homegoing' by Yaa Gyasi which has had mad good reviews AOTS. If I remember there's an OTF Books in a few days time, I'll report back.

                                                After that I'm reading Selina Todd's book about the working class called 'People'. Selina is my mate's missus, or he's her fella I suppose. He wrote Gangs of Manchester about the Victorian scuttlers and City of Gangs about the Glasgow street gangs of the 20s.

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                                                  Current Reading - Books best thread

                                                  Finished Human Acts by Han Kang, a novel about thethe Gwangju Uprising, which passed me by as a teenager (or was barely covered at the time).

                                                  Now reading The Big Short by Michael Lewis after watching the film twice, and the written version is just as compelling.

                                                  As it's become a hot OTF Books topic of discussion, I also have not read The Old Man and the Sea.

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                                                    Current Reading - Books best thread

                                                    Well, I don't like to chew my cabbage twice, but it's quite good and not very long. Without giving too much away, it's a story of an old man...and the sea.

                                                    All that said, I read To Have and To Have Not just a few months ago and enjoyed it more, but I can see why TOMATS is the classic.

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