New now reading

in reality, all of this has been a total load of old bollocks
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Fonz
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Re: New now reading

Postby Fonz » 28 Feb 2019, 14:09

harvey k-tel wrote:
Fonz wrote:
Darkness_Fish wrote:Image



Very good. Evokes St Malo well. If you’ve been you know how cool that place is.


I read that one a few weeks ago, too, and yeah, I'd like to see St. Malo (although ideally before it had been bombed and shelled to bits).

Now onto:

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Incredibly, most of the walled town ‘seems’ authentic, and possibly as they were, pre-war.
One definitely feels as if one is walking around an old town, rather than a simulacrum.

Get yourself over there, before Armageddon!
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harvey k-tel
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Re: New now reading

Postby harvey k-tel » 28 Feb 2019, 17:44

Fonz wrote:
Get yourself over there, before Armageddon!


Thanks for the tip!

:)
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Re: New now reading

Postby mentalist (slight return) » 28 Feb 2019, 22:45

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This is illuminating. It makes a case for Aboriginal agriculture being more advanced than has been credited by looking at archaeology and the writing of early explorers and such.
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Darkness_Fish
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Re: New now reading

Postby Darkness_Fish » 04 Mar 2019, 09:37

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Not exactly seasonal, and not exactly my kind of book. My wife is nearing completion of her first attempt at writing a novel, and wanted me to read one of her favourite books before reading hers, to compare and contrast.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

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Re: New now reading

Postby rorebhoy » 04 Mar 2019, 12:04

...and Feb's books:
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an exhaustive (and exhausting) biog of Steely Dan - written by an uberfan happy to tell every facet of the recording process (typical quote 'when they examined the tape they found it had traces of a blob of mustard on it' etc.) without instilling much personality or love of the music into the book
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Haven't seen the movie, but wondering how'd this would really stretch out into 90mins+. It was the first book I'd read by Baldwin, but will read more for sure. One strange thing about the book was an almost absence of time/setting - aside from reference to a Stevie Wonder record, this could've been set any time in the 20th century...maybe it was just me though
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A bit of a missed opportunity this book - a guy who was there for so much pivotal music in the '60s and '70s, but delivers a rather anodyne tale as he rattles from one recording session to another (as a side note, he worked like hell for a long period of time...). A good editor would've worked wonders too.

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Polishgirl
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Re: New now reading

Postby Polishgirl » 04 Mar 2019, 18:16

I've recently started reading again, having been through a prolonged drought.

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I'm a big fan of Lahlum - Norwegian crime fiction, based in Oslo in the late 60s/early 70s, all featuring Inspector Kristiansen. His style is most definitely not Scandi-noir; rather, it's police procedural with a formal, almost old-fashioned tone. Well-plotted, set against the backdrop of contemporary Norwegian politics: in these two, the wider context is whether Norway will join the EU.

Now onto this bit of non-fiction, where the author searches out the Dutch Jewish woman who, as a child in WW2 ,was taken in by his grandparents.
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echolalia wrote: I despise Prefab Sprout. It will be decades before “hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque” is surpassed as the most terrible lyric in pop history. That fucking bastard ruined all three things for me forever.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Jimbo » 06 Mar 2019, 13:52

On to book 3 in the series! If you are a Harry Flashman fan you will not be disappointed by the antics of his uncle, Thomas Flashman.

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Polishgirl
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Re: New now reading

Postby Polishgirl » 10 Mar 2019, 21:42

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So, this was inevitably harrowing reading, but absorbing and revealing as well. It's really three stories in one; the story of Lien herself, the wider story of Holland during and after WW2, and the experience of the author as he gets to know Lien now, and visits various key locations. I must admit that I'm guilty of thinking about Eastern and Central Europe when it comes to the Holocaust- forgetting about Western Europe, and I didn't know quite how brutal things were in Holland, and how scarred the country was in the years after the war.

It reminded me a bit of this, which I read a few years ago and which hooked me completely: about Operation Anthropoid and the assassination of Heydrich in Prague. The author of this also combines the history with his experience of writing the book.

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Next is this, which has won all sort of plaudits.

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echolalia wrote: I despise Prefab Sprout. It will be decades before “hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque” is surpassed as the most terrible lyric in pop history. That fucking bastard ruined all three things for me forever.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Darkness_Fish » 11 Mar 2019, 09:45

^ Those look really interesting. Must remember to look out for them. "^" obviously indicating previous page.

Anyway, now reading:
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Which I'm worried will turn into too much of an Angela's Ashes style melodrama. It's an absolute doorstop of a novel, fairly miserable so far, and it's not even tackled its main theme of Alzheimer's disease yet.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Penk! » 11 Mar 2019, 10:22

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Struggling a bit with this. Lots of "he was taking loads of coke and having sex with so-and-so", not enough on what was really in his head and what inspired the music. Unless all the music was inspired by taking loads of coke and having sex with so-and-so. And a lot of the major events and records are brushed past and not really considered, or mentioned out of chronological order: for example, there's absolutely nothing about when 'Space Oddity' hit even though you'd expect that having a first big single and getting famous for the first time would be worth discussing a bit.

I guess you can get most of that from a conventional biography, just a lot of this feels dull and salacious. I don't really need 500 pages of gossip, no matter if it's from first-hand talking heads who were there at the time.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Penk! » 14 Mar 2019, 12:42

... though actually it gets more involving once you get past the COKE AND SEX years* and away from his peak period, oddly enough.

The Roger Moore anecdote gave me a laugh on the metro this morning.



*OK, those were actually 1970-1995 or something but mainly the mid-70s
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Re: New now reading

Postby Jimbo » 18 Mar 2019, 02:32

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On to book 4. This new Flashman series is a winner!
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Re: New now reading

Postby Snarfyguy » 18 Mar 2019, 17:42

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This edition, as it happens. Four bucks, what the hell - these guys deliver.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Polishgirl » 28 Mar 2019, 19:13

I made my usual mistake at the library and checked out a ridiculous number of books at once, so I only made a start on the Rebecca Makkai before I had to return it, and I've had to reserve it again... :x

In the meantime:

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Another of her Poirot novels. The stylistic tone of it is very convincing but, as with her own thrillers, the plot becomes a bit bizarre and silly. I got fed up with it and didn't make it to the end, partly because the bit where HP gathers them all together to reveal the solution goes on for about 473 pages.

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Patricia Gibney is new to me - police procedurals set in Ireland, featuring a scatty but determined female DI. Overall, they're pretty good - the main characters are well-drawn, and the pacing is deftly handled. My only criticism is that she can be a bit lurid- graphic doesn't necessarily mean hard-hitting - but I'll carry on with them.

Just started this:


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echolalia wrote: I despise Prefab Sprout. It will be decades before “hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque” is surpassed as the most terrible lyric in pop history. That fucking bastard ruined all three things for me forever.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Minnie the Minx » 02 Apr 2019, 03:02

Have you read that Eleanor Olliphant thing PG? I think you would like that.

I can't remember what I have already written but recently I read The Gallow's Pole by Ben Myers which was fucking superb.
I have never read much Philip Roth so after Portnoy's Complaint (which was fantastic) I read The Ghost Writer which was enjoyable but different. I'm currently about twenty pages into American Pastoral which has me going back and reading some pages again just because they are so beautiful to read.
Last week I read my first Joseph Conrad - The Secret Sharer, which was magnetically intimate and gripping, and then Heart of Darkness. After I read the latter, I announced to the room that the plot was really "very much like Apocalypse Now" and wondered why they all looked at me funny.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Jimbo » 02 Apr 2019, 03:50

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And now book five! Unfortunately this is the last available book but Thomas Flashman at Waterloo is in the works.

This really is a good series and original Flashman fans will not be disappointed.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Diamond Dog » 02 Apr 2019, 08:11

Minnie the Minx wrote:Last week I read my first Joseph Conrad - The Secret Sharer, which was magnetically intimate and gripping, and then Heart of Darkness. After I read the latter, I announced to the room that the plot was really "very much like Apocalypse Now" and wondered why they all looked at me funny.


:lol:

I found the book a difficult read to be honest - but probably because I was trying to match it up with the film, when - in reality- you really should do them the other way around.
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Re: New now reading

Postby ` » 02 Apr 2019, 10:07

Jimbo wrote:Image

And now book five! Unfortunately this is the last available book but Thomas Flashman at Waterloo is in the works.

This really is a good series and original Flashman fans will not be disappointed.



Having run out of Flashman books with which to divert you from your various "sources", the sinister forces behind world publishing will do their best to try and muzzle you by releasing the late Philip Kerr's final Bernie Gunther book on Thursday...

Not to keen on reading the older Flashman books as the author has apparently shied well clear of George McDonald Frasers's un-PC attitudes and terminology. As a result, I'd far rather go back and read the incredibly rich and very, very funny originals one last time

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Re: New now reading

Postby Jimbo » 02 Apr 2019, 13:22

caramba wrote:
Jimbo wrote:
And now book five! Unfortunately this is the last available book but Thomas Flashman at Waterloo is in the works.

This really is a good series and original Flashman fans will not be disappointed.



Having run out of Flashman books with which to divert you from your various "sources", the sinister forces behind world publishing will do their best to try and muzzle you by releasing the late Philip Kerr's final Bernie Gunther book on Thursday...

Not to keen on reading the older Flashman books as the author has apparently shied well clear of George McDonald Frasers's un-PC attitudes and terminology. As a result, I'd far rather go back and read the incredibly rich and very, very funny originals one last time


The oldies may well be the most re-readble books ever because they are so much fun but I'm telling you man, these new ones are fun as well. Right now Flashman has got himself embroiled in the War of 1812 as a liaison between the British and the Iroquois while hitting up this shapely Mennonite sweetie up river from the Indian village where he is encamped. And I never learned so much about this rarely discussed war.

And to be sure I will keep a sharp eye out for the new Bernie Gunther when it comes out in audio - which is the only way I do books in 2019.
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echolalia
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Re: New now reading

Postby echolalia » 03 Apr 2019, 17:45

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I’m sure someone else posted this recently (with a different cover). It’s newly re-published after being out of print for ages. It has all kinds of affinities/symmetries with The Erasers by Alain Robbe-Grillet, and one of them – besides the obvious Oedipal reverberations and a “missing corpse” thing – is their location in dreary towns on opposite sides of the English Channel. Berg is set in Brighton in winter, although there are hardly any references that explicitly identify the town as such. Pier and beach and station etc. are largely generic and rarely specific, so you wouldn’t really call it a Brighton novel, as the actual place is more backdrop than protagonist. Any low-season coastal town will do (as long as it has a seedy bedsit quarter where termagant landladies fulminate savagely from threadbare landings through flimsy bolted doors at cowering feckless tenants who’ve fallen behind on the rent). It’s definitely closer to France than Hampstead anyway, in spirit if not in geography. Whether Quin had read Robbe-Grillet is unknown. Or Henri Bergson for that matter. Not that it’s all café-crème and soixante-neuf and Pastis 51! It’s quite Ortonesque and the farce gets high in places. There’s one scene between Berg and his father that’s so appalling the only possible reaction is horrified laughter. I thought it was excellent!


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