what are you reading at the moment?

[Laurel]

Yes it's the first in the Maddaddam trilogy, the other two are The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam

[[deleted user]]

Just finished Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge - I adore it - wish someone had given it to me when I was a child.
Artful by Ali Smith is up next

[[deleted user]]

Finished Artful- Ali Smith - an amazing book. It's a novel based on a series of lectures she gave on literature and it's wonderful. I didn't understand all of it but I loved it.
Persuasion and the Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Obabakoak next.

[Angela]

You are a reading ninja Lee!

[[deleted user]]

Just been reading short books and had the day off on Friday :0)

[Jenny]

Lee wrote: "Finished Artful- Ali Smith - an amazing book. It's a novel based on a series of lectures she gave on literature and it's wonderful. I didn't understand all of it but I loved it.
Persuasion and the..."

I have The Accidental by Ali Smith at home and There but for the on my TBR. I've never read anything by her, but for some reason have this idea in my head that I will love her, so it's nice to hear you've enjoyed Artful as much as you did.

It sounds like a really interesting concept. Does it feel more like a selection of essays or like fiction?

[[deleted user]]

It's kind of both, as part of the novel consists of someone reading the notes for the lectures.
There But For The and The Accidental are both great - I also like another of her books - Hotel World.

[Jenny]

Great, I like when it gets messy in terms of genre :)

[Laurel]

Artful sounds very interesting! Will have to keep an eye out for it.

I tried to read more of Mason & Dixon last night and as much as I liked the idea of it when we first started, I've now lost interest in it so I think I'm probably just going to take it back to the library. So I'm reading Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson cos it's fun and then moving onto Austerlitz and Obabakoak

[Hilary]

For Whom the Bell Tolls was the topic of my reading group today. I just thought I'd share the information that of the 12 people in my reading group, one hadn't read beyond the first few chapters, 2 enjoyed it and thought it was really good literature and it's reputation was well deserved and the rest of us, 9, varied between OK and awful.

I was pleased as in the past I've been the contrary one who likes what others dislike or vice versa. On to Room by Emma Donahue for February. I have read that before and enjoyed it so looking forward to it.

[Jenny]

I am one that always needs to be told that it is OK to turn into a narcoleptic when attempting anything by Hemingway, so I am taking great comfort in reading this! :)

[[deleted user]]

I really do not like Hemingway -I tried some of his short stories once and they were the most unpleasantly anti women things I've ever had the misfortune to read.

[Hilary]

One of the group quoted a comment by a critic which went along the lines that Hemingway couldn't write women at all. The female characters in his books were only there to admire the men!

[[deleted user]]

I would add - or to be despised by the men!

[Tracey]

Thanks for the forewarning. Think I'll be giving him a miss then!

[Laurel]

Yeah there's not a lot of love for Hemingway is there? I have only read one short story so not really qualified to make a judgement as yet, I might try a short novel based on the comments here and then if I don't like him I haven't wasted loads of my time on him

[Joy]

I've just finished The Beaumont Bequest which is an indie book on Kindle. It's a supernatural mystery-thriller and once I got past the first few chapters I became engrossed in the story. (Just at first there were rather a lot of characters introduced which were a bit hard to keep track of.) It has a good plot with convincing characters.

[[deleted user]]

I like the sound of that - I had a quick look at it on amazon (and "accidentally" bought it) and the plot sounds a little like " the Tractate Middoth by M R James an adaptation of which was on tv over Christmas.

[Jenny]

After finishing Robinson Crusoe a day or two ago, I am now reading Foe by J.M. Coetzee, which is quite an original re-telling or sort of spin-off of Robinson's story. So far I am really enjoying it.

I've also just finished a selection of poems by Anna Akhmatove, which was beautiful. Her poems are so deeply influenced by the political and historical circumstances of her time (Stalin's Russia) it makes me want to study that part of history a bit closer, since though her poems can be read without that knowledge I feel they would really benefit from a bit more knowledge about that time on the readers part.

[[deleted user]]

I keep meaning to read some Ahkmatova - is there a poem you particularly like that we could have for our poem of the day?
I've been wanting to read Robinson Crusoe for ever - I think Feb will be the month I finally start it.

[Jenny]

There are beautiful ones, but the trouble is that a lot of her earlier poems have no title, so it's hard to find the English translation (I am reading her in German). But I shall try to find one in English translation and let you know.

Robinson Crusoe started off a bit dry, but then slowly grew on me. Hope you'll enjoy it!

[Hilary]

I've never heard of that poet Jenny. I'd love to read something if you can find it. The Stalinist era is very interesting isn't it. Such a charismatic but insane man. There is a very good biography of hi by I think Simon Sebag Montefiore which I have read about half of. I'd recommend it.

[Laurel]

There's a couple of collections of Akhmatova's poetry for £2.49 each for kindle which I'm eyeballing as they look very interesting - they are dual language editions as well, so you can see the Russian (not that I can make head nor tail of it) as well as the English translation. I'm tempted....

[Jenny]

What is really interesting about this whole poetry in translation thing, is the amount of time spent on finding the right translation for you - and how much translation changes the poem. One of my favourites by her is a really long one, called 'Requiem'.

This is just a tiny part of it, first in translation by D.M. Thomas:

1)

They took you away at daybreak. Half wak-
ing, as though at a wake, I followed.
In the dark chamber children were crying,
In the image-case, candlelight guttered.
At your lips, the chill of an ikon,
A deathly sweat at your brow.
I shall go creep to our wailing wall,
Crawl to the Kremlin towers.

2)

Gently flows the gentle Don,
Yellow moonlight leaps the sill,
Leaps the sill and stops aston-
ished as it sees the shade
Of a woman lying ill,
Of a woman stretched alone.
Son in irons and husband clay.
Pray. Pray.

and here's the same bit by Stanley Kunitz and Max Hayward
1)

At dawn they came and took you away.
You were my dead: I walked behind.
In the dark room children cried,
The holy candle gasped for air.
Your lips were chill from the ikon's kiss,
Sweat bloomed on your brow - those deathly
flowers!
Like the wives of Peter's troopers in Red
Square
I'll stand and howl under the Kremlin towers.

2)

Quietly flows the quiet Don;
Into my house slips the yellow moon.
It leaps the sill, with its cap askew,
And balks at a shadow, that yellow moon.
This woman is sick to her marrow-bone,
This woman is utterly alone,
With husband dead, with son away
In jail. Pray for me. Pray.


Thank you for the recommendation Hillary, it is this one Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, right? I also have Moscow, 1937 sitting on my shelf, but it is so intimidatingly big, I didn't dare pull it out yet.

[Tracey]

Fascinating to compare the different translations. Each one simply an 'interpration' of the original, trying to keep the integrity of the poem that a direct translation might fail to do. I hadn't appreciated that before.

[Hilary]

Very interesting Jenny. Yes that is the book, my edition was published in three separate sections so doesn't have that title, but I do know it's the same book. There is another titled Stalingrad, about the battle for the city in WW2 that gives another good insight into Stalinist Russia. I read it some time ago and I think the author is Anthony Beevor.

[Hilary]

Yes it is that one Jenny. I'd also recommend Stalingrad by I think, Anthony Beevor, about the battle for the city in WW2. Gives a good insight into the power of Stalin's regime. Moscow 1937, looks good. I think I'll give it a try if there is an English translation.

[[deleted user]]

I've really enjoyed comparing the two different translations . I've been trying to decide which one I prefer but can't.
"In the Court of the Red Tsar" is a fascinating book - it makes you realise that nobody was safe in Stalinist Russia. It also makes it even harder to understand how so many intellectuals (in Britain at least) supported his regime- even quite late on.

[Jenny]

There are so many good books out on that subject, non-fiction and fiction it seems.

Lee, about British intellectuals supporting the regime:
It remindeds me of the large amount of West German political activists/left wingers who glorified GDR (Eastern Germany) for the theory of it, because they never came in touch with it's reality. And the bit of reality that seeped through, could easily be dismissed as anti-communist propaganda.

As for the two translations:
For Anna Akhmatova I would personally choose D.M. Thomas I think, but with these two examples I too find it hard to decide. The second one to me has an older, more conservative tone to me, also a more dominant rhythm, the first one sounds more modern in it's approach I find.

[[deleted user]]

I guess there are an awful lot of people who don't allow reality to spoil their theories.

Thinking about translated prose, rather than poetry - the practise (at least for translating into English) seems to be to use the style of writing at the time of the translation rather than the original piece. I sometimes wonder how this effects my reading of, say, the recent translations of Thomas Mann - I'm sure that reading a modern translation of Dickens would be a very different experience from reading the original.

[Hilary]

That's so true Lee. Some time ago a group I was in read Dante's Inferno. We all ended up with different translations and the difference was amazing. The end result was very interesting as how much people enjoyed the book seemed to depend on which translation they had.

[[deleted user]]

Can you remember which was the most liked translation, as I have tried and failed with Dante :0(

[Jenny]

I've decided to split The Divine Comedy in it's three parts, and read one each year starting with Inferno this year. I have no idea unfortunately of what the best translation is in English as I don't dare to tackle it in anything but German, but if you feel like giving it another shot later in the year, maybe you'd like to join in?

[[deleted user]]

I'm definitely up for that - and reading one part a year is an excellent idea. Let me know when you plan to start :0)

[Jenny]

Great, will do once I've mustered the courage! ;)

I've just started reading Adrift on the Nile by Naguib Mahfouz, who I've been wanting to read for quite a while, kind of trying to slowly read my way through the nobel-laureats. Has anybody read anything by him?

[[deleted user]]

Just finished Burial Rites which I loved - it's the story of the last few months of a woman who has been condemned to death for murder and who, because of the lack of prisons and other public buildings in the area of Iceland in which she is to be executed is staying in the house of a local farmer. it has a definite feeling of Alias Grace about it.
I'm about a quarter of the way through Obabakoak and I'm just about to start The Bad Beginning - the first in the Unfortunate Series of Events books.

[Hilary]

I'll check when I get home which one I had, Lee. I was one of the unimpressed ones. I'll also ask another member who I'm still in touch with what she remembers. I seem to remember that it was a recent translation by Seamus Heaney that got the thumbs up but I could be totally misremembering!

[Laurel]

I've never heard of Mahfouz before Jenny but it certainly looks interesting and I might check him out when I'm in Saudi Arabia on my armchair around the world trip!
Burial Rites also looks very good too so will have to keep an eye out for that as well.

I'd be interested in joining in with the divine comedy as well - I've been meaning to read it since forever!

At the moment though, I've put Obabakoak to one side so I can read Some Kind Of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce and also a bit of Daniel Deronda by George Eliot.

[[deleted user]]

I was sure I had Some Kind of Fairy Tale on my kindle - but no! Let me know what you think of it Laurel.
@ Jenny - Adrift on the Nile definitely needs to be added to my to read list.

[Hilary]

I've discovered the Murder of Roger Ackroyd was on my Kindle!!!!! No wonder I couldn't find it on the bookshelves!

[[deleted user]]

Doh! Same thing happened to me - ish. I thought I had a copy of Ackroyd, couldn't find it, bought it on kindle and then came across it on my bookshelves when looking for The Wolves of Willoughby Chase a few days ago.

[Joy]

I whizzed throughShades of Milk and Honey yesterday evening. A very light but entertaining book. It purports to be 'Jane Austen with magic' but has nothing of Jane Austen' s qualities of humour or subtle observation. On its own level it's a fun Recency romance in a world where magic plays a part.

[Hilary]

I noticed on the dreaded kindle bargains that 12 Years a Slave and The Railway Man were available so of course bought both. I'm hoping that the first is as good as Incidents in the Life of a Slave girl which is a real eye opener. But I've started with the Railway Man. I'm only about 20% in but so far he seems a very unusual man. I can't wait to get back to it.

[Laurel]

I bought those too as well Hilary! The film was recommended to me yesterday (The Railway Man) by a friend so I thought I'd check the book out. And 12 Years a Slave looks fascinating too - hope you enjoy them!

[Jenny]

Has anyone seen the movie of 12 Years a Slave actually?

[Hilary]

I'd really like to see it but it is about an hours drive to the nearest cinema, so is a fairly major outing. Consequently, I never get to see many movies ( big ahhhhh for poor me !)

[Jenny]

I am 'ahhhhhing' as I type!! We have quite a few great little alternative movie theatres in town, unfortunately all the movies are dubbed though, and I've developed a bit of an allergy against that, so mostly I just rent videos as well.

[[deleted user]]

Oh I hate dubbing - I much prefer subtitles. On the subject of which - have you seen "The Lives of Others " ? I thought it was an excellent film - though it made me cry quite a lot.

[Jenny]

Loved it. Cried during and after and again when Ulrich Mühe (the actor that played the Stasi-guy) died a few month after.

[Hilary]

Just finished The Railway Man. An amazing story, couldn't put it down. You can't help being awed by the sheer will to live that some people possess and how some people can survive the most dreadful physical and mental punishment. It's humbling.